Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 21 June 2016
118. Deputy Joan Collins asked the Minister for Finance the details of the Bilderberg meeting held recently in Germany, including who attended, what was discussed, the minutes of the meeting and if he attended on behalf of the Government. [16733/16]
View answerI attended the Bilderberg meeting from 10-12 June 2016 in Dresden, Germany. I, like a number of European ministers, was invited to attend given my position as Minister for Finance. For further information, I would point the Deputy to the Bilderberg Meetings website (www.bilderbergmeetings.org) which includes information on the organisation's governance, steering committee, meetings, attendees, agendas and associated press releases. At this meeting and its workshops I took the opportunity to set out to my fellow attendees the opportunities that exist in Ireland for investors and multinational companies.
The Government is focussed on encouraging and supporting foreign direct investment into Ireland to provide jobs and continue to support economic growth. In January of this year, the IDA announced the highest level of employment in its client companies in its 67 year history. IDA client companies created 18,983 new jobs in 2015. These results mean that more than one-in-five private sector jobs in the economy are as a result of government supported FDI. I would point out to the Deputy that a number of the business attendees represented companies which have very significant investments in Ireland that support thousands of Irish jobs.
