Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance)
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28. To ask the Taoiseach if he will report on his meeting with a person (details supplied). [47003/17]

Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
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During a recent visit to Seattle, I met with CEO of Apple, Tim Cook and his executive team. During our discussions, Mr. Cook highlighted the company’s very positive and long-standing experience of their Irish-based operations. He briefed me on the company’s data centre needs, and confirmed that Apple will consider the Athenry site in the context of future business requirements. I advised the company of the Irish Government's approach, including the recent decision to designate data centres as strategic infrastructure for planning purposes. We also had a brief discussion regarding the European Commission’s State Aid case, and on regional and global economic challenges including Brexit.

Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance)
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29. To ask the Taoiseach if he will report on his engagements and meetings while he was in the United States of America. [47004/17]

Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
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I undertook a three day visit to Seattle, Silicon Valley and San Francisco from Wednesday 1st to Friday 3rd November. In Seattle, I spoke at an event attended by approximately 250 people from Seattle’s business community, as well as local Irish community representatives.

Also in Seattle, I met with representatives of both Amazon and Microsoft, who between them employ over 5,000 people in Ireland.

In Silicon Valley, I visited the headquarters of a number of companies with significant investments and operations in Ireland, including Cisco, Facebook, Google and Apple.

In San Francisco, I spoke at a reception in City Hall hosted by Mayor Ed Lee, and attended by approximately 300 Irish-American business and community leaders. I spoke about Ireland's economic and social transformation, Ireland-US relations, and the strong and vibrant Irish Community in San Francisco and the Bay Area. I also had the opportunity to meet with the family of Ashley Donoghue, one of the victims of the 2015 Berkeley tragedy.

Also in San Francisco, I spoke at an Enterprise Ireland business networking event attended by 250 people where I used the opportunity to promote the strength of Ireland’s innovation ecosystem and highlight the depth of our highly skilled workforce. I also met with representatives of a number of Enterprise Ireland clients exhibiting at the event.

I officially opened the new San Francisco office of Irish company, Linesight, which is projecting job increases of 200 worldwide in 2018, including approximately 90 jobs in Ireland. I also attended the announcement by IDA client company Twilio that it has chosen Dublin as the location for its EMEA headquarters, with the establishment of 100 jobs.

Also in San Francisco, I attended a Tourism Ireland event with representatives of the travel industry and airlines, where I had the opportunity to promote Ireland’s tourism offering. Finally, I visited Lucas Film studio and heard from production executives there about the positive experience of Ireland as a location for the Star Wars series.

Overall, my visit to the West Coast was very positive, and a great opportunity to further develop the strong links between Ireland and the United States, as well as promote Ireland's priorities in the context of Brexit and other global developments.