Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 4 April 2017
59. Deputy Joan Burton asked the Minister for Finance his views on whether Ireland is facing unfair competition in attracting banking, insurance and other jobs here as a consequence of Brexit; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [16372/17]
Amharc ar fhreagraAs the Deputy will be well aware, the area of international financial services (IFS) is extremely competitive. Although Ireland has been very successful in attracting global leaders in IFS over recent decades we cannot become complacent especially in the face of increased competition from other countries and, of course, in the context of Brexit.
This is why the Government launched IFS2020 Strategy in March of 2015 which is a whole-of-Government approach to further driving the growth and development of the IFS sector in Ireland which has been developed jointly between the public and private sectors underpinned by annual Action Plans. These Plans can be tailored on an ongoing basis to ensure that Ireland remains fully capable of dealing with any challenges and opportunities in the area of IFS especially in the lead-up to the exit of the UK from the EU. In particular, we have to ensure that Ireland's offering as a location of choice for global international financial services remains highly competitive and on a par with our competitors in other EU countries.
It should be noted that in my role as Minister of State for Financial Services, I monitor trends and developments as they impact on the international financial services (IFS) sector. Arising from this, in a scheduled meeting with Commission Vice President Dombrovskis a number of areas were discussed, including ensuring that there is consistency across EU Member States in the application of European and Member State regulatory standards for financial services.
I raised these issues with the Vice President in the context of potential stability risk to the European financial system. It was also mentioned that it was also mentioned that there were concerns about an apparent impression that some Member States may apply less than full regulations to financial services activities seeking to relocate from London i.e. regulatory arbitrage. It has to be clarified that these were concerns rather than "complaints" per se and they echo the sentiments of some other Member States. In fact the Chairpersons of the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) and the European Insurance and Occupational Pensions Authority (EIOPA) also voiced similar sentiments recently.
