Michael McGrath (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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Ireland enjoys a deep and wide-ranging bilateral relationship with Canada, owing from our historic cultural and people-to-people ties, our economic and trade relationship, and our cooperation on global affairs across an array of fora and channels. Since my appointment as Minister for Finance in December 2022, I have not had a bilateral meeting with Canada’s Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Finance, Chrystia Freeland. However, I look forward to opportunities to engage with her and to continuing the long-standing engagement and cooperation between our countries and economies.

As the Deputy might be aware, Ireland, Canada and a number of Caribbean countries share a constituency at a number of International Financial Institutions. While participating in the IMF-World Bank Spring Meetings in Washington last year, I had an opportunity to meet with Canadian Executive Directors of our shared constituencies at both the IMF and World Bank. These engagements provided an opportunity to discuss the economic situation and challenges at national, regional and global levels, as well as matters being discussed and considered by the Executive Boards of both of these institutions.