Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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115. To ask the Taoiseach if he met Irish business owners while attending the World Economic Forum in Davos; and if so, the issues that were discussed. [4588/18]

Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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116. To ask the Taoiseach the persons who travelled with him to the World Economic Forum in Davos. [4589/18]

Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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117. To ask the Taoiseach the company CEOs he met at the World Economic Forum in Davos; and the issues that were discussed. [4590/18]

Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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118. To ask the Taoiseach if Ireland's housing needs were discussed at the meetings he attended at the World Economic Forum in Davos. [4591/18]

Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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119. To ask the Taoiseach if immigration across the EU was discussed at the meetings he attended at the World Economic Forum in Davos. [4592/18]

Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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120. To ask the Taoiseach if climate change was discussed at the meetings he attended at the World Economic Forum in Davos. [4593/18]

Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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121. To ask the Taoiseach the presentations he attended at the World Economic Forum in Davos. [4594/18]

Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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122. To ask the Taoiseach if he made presentations at the World Economic Forum in Davos. [4595/18]

Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 115 to 122, inclusive, together.

I attended the 2018 Annual Meeting of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland from 24 to 26 January. I was accompanied by a small delegation from my Department, including my Chief of Staff, the Secretary General of the Department, the Government Press Secretary, my Private Secretary, and a Security Officer from An Garda Síochána. The Minister for Finance, Deputy Paschal Donohoe also travelled to the meeting, accompanied by his officials.

The Annual Meeting, which was attended this year by over 3,000 participants, represented an unparalleled opportunity for me to meet both on a pre-scheduled and on an impromptu basis with people in leadership positions in politics, international development, civic society and business.

Throughout the course of my visit, in my scheduled meetings with companies, my participation in formal WEF events and in a series of informal contacts, I discussed a range of important policy challenges for Ireland, the EU and the global community, including climate change, sustainable development, immigration, defence, security, international trade and taxation, as well as Ireland's perspective on Brexit and the future of Europe.

I attended an event hosted by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, which focused on implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals.

I held a series of pre-scheduled bilateral meetings with the Chief Executive Officers of Hewlett Packard Enterprise, IBM, eBay, Coca Cola and Bank of America Merrill Lynch, as well as the Chief Operating Officers of Facebook and Pfizer. These seven companies between them employ over 12,000 people in Ireland. I hosted an IDA Ireland dinner, which was attended by almost 40 existing and prospective FDI clients. Given that my involvement in Davos was focused on promoting inward investment from foreign-owned companies, I had no bilateral meetings with Irish business owners.

Davos provides an exceptional opportunity to engage with the international press to highlight Ireland's strengths as a location for inward investment, and I undertook several media engagements with Irish and international media, including Bloomberg, Reuters, BBC and CNN. It also provides many informal opportunities to meet business and political leaders. For example, I met briefly with Denis O'Brien, President Macri of Argentina, Prime Minister Cerar of Slovenia and Michel Barnier.

I participated in two of the World Economic Forum’s formal programme events, including a panel discussion entitled ‘New Momentum for Europe’, and a lunchtime discussion with political, academic and business leaders. I also attended US President Trump’s speech to close this year's meeting.