Clearing House Group Minutes - Department of Taoiseach

It is hoped that a significant package of IFSC supportive measures will be included in the
Finance Bill.
Obviously, given the current state of the public finances, the focus has been on progressing
issues with little or no cost for the Exchequer.
The Budget speech is currently in preparation. The speech will once again outline the
Government's absolute commitment to the 12.5% Corporation tax regime.
6. Report on Central Bank / industry engagement
Matthew Elderfield reported that a very useful meeting had taken place between the senior
regulatory management team of the Central Bank and senior industry representatives in
September at which the Central Bank set out its strategy for 2012, including setting out the
banking and supervisory challenges, rolling out the new supervisory approach (PRISM) and
reforming supervision and regulation.
Pat Farrell said that industry would send in a formal response before January 31 2012.
Matthew Elderfield indicated that bilaterals with industry would continue in the future. The
Chairman concluded that this was a useful exchange and the bilaterals were a good forum for
discussing regulation specific issues.
7. Marketing IDA/IFSC Ireland
IDA Ireland provided an update on the pulse of their international financial services business;
- Activity within the Sector is strong, based on site visits, investor queries and investments
won;
- Overseas marketing activity continues apace and has been enhanced by the effective
collaboration with IFSC Ireland;
- Client feedback on the various platform events put in place with IFSC Ireland has been very
positive and further events are planned for 2012 in Frankfurt, New York, Brussels and
London;
- IDA plans to allocate additional resources to its financial services Division during 2012
through internal redeployment;
- The recent joint venture with the funds industry whereby IDA's overseas office network will
act as representative offices for the Sector is a further positive development.
Pat Farrell updated on the activities of IFSC Ireland. There were two important dimensions
to John Bruton‟s programme in 2011; overseas promotional visits to target markets in
collaboration with IDA Ireland and industry representative bodies, bilateral meetings both
here and overseas with firms interested in making new or additional investment into Ireland.
An important complimentary aspect to John‟s work was his strong articulation of the Ireland
Inc story as an integral part of the overall messaging.
8. Date of next meeting:
The next meeting takes place at 10am on Wednesday 18 January 2012.