Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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221. To ask the Minister for Finance the extent to which he expects the financial services sector here to benefit from Brexit; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [39470/20]

Paschal Donohoe (Dublin Central, Fine Gael)
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I can reiterate that Ireland regrets the UK’s decision to leave the EU, although we respect it. While the Government remains committed to protecting and strengthening the Ireland-UK relationship following the end of the transition period, I can advise the Deputy that the net impact of Brexit on the policy areas within my remit is anticipated to be strongly negative.

A number of government strategies have sought to grow the international financial services sector over the last number of decades. In terms of jobs targets, the most ambitious target of a 30% increase in jobs was set out in 2015 in the five-year strategy for the sector to 2020, which was named ‘IFS2020’ and which had been devised long before Brexit.

The nature, scale and complexity of Ireland’s international financial services sector will change in a number of ways as a result of the financial services investments won in recent years, including firms relocating from the UK as a result of Brexit and those looking to set up operations in the EU for the first time. The industry in Ireland has become broader and more diverse with more firms carrying out a greater range of regulated activities than at any time.

The Government and the state agencies, such as the IDA, continue to work to fully capture any opportunities for inward investment that emerge through promoting Ireland as a committed English-speaking member of the EU with unfettered access to the EU Single Market, our continued access to EU talent and that of the Common Travel Area, in addition to our pro-business environment underpinned by a strong, fully-independent financial services regulator in the Central Bank of Ireland. We continue to implement the latest iteration of the IFS strategies which is Ireland for Finance, a strategy to develop the sector to 2025. That strategy is included in the Programme for Government. The implementation is led by my colleague Minister of State Seán Fleming TD.

The full impact of Brexit for the industry in Ireland may not materialise for some years. At present, firms are establishing the foundations of a new or significantly expanded presence in Ireland, creating a platform for future growth opportunities in all sectors: insurance, banking, and investment management.

Since the Brexit referendum in UK, we can point to the success of Barclays and Bank of America in banking plus the many investment firms who have chosen Ireland as their European base such as Legal and General, and Aberdeen Standard. Three of the largest market infrastructure players in their respective markets have made Ireland their post Brexit location for their European business, namely Refinitiv, EquiLend, and DTCC. Marine insurers The Standard Club and North P&I Club are both establishing operations here. Kroll/KBRA became the first ratings agency to announce that its EU HQ location would be in Dublin and this was followed by S&P’s announcement in December 2017 that Dublin would become its EMEA HQ.

The IDA paused its marketing activities overseas in the second quarter of 2020 due to the Covid-19 pandemic but a new marketing campaign commenced in the third quarter of the year as part of a phased launch across key source markets for investment.