I thank Deputy Brennan for his question on a very important sector for the Irish economy. Tokenisation, the process whereby an underlying asset or pool of assets, tangible or intangible, is converted into digital tokens that act as its proxy, could fundamentally reform how capital markets operate, enabling real-time trades, increasing transparency and liquidity, expediting clearing and ultimately providing for atomic settlement. As the Deputy is aware, the Minister for Finance, who has lead policy responsibility for this area, published a funds sector 2030 report in October 2024. The report, titled Funds Sector 2030: A Framework for Open, Resilient and Developing Markets, is a wide-ranging review of the funds and asset management sector. The report included a recommendation that the industry continue to engage with the Central Bank of Ireland and the Department of Finance, as necessary, "with a view to mapping out a pathway for adoption of tokenisation". I am advised that the Department of Finance fully supports and encourages the work that industry has undertaken thus far to assess what can be done within the current legislative and regulatory frameworks. Officials from that Department are considering submissions from industry regarding proposed changes to the current legislative framework. This work is being done and led by that Department, and following this work my Department will examine any proposed legislative amendments to the Companies Act put forward by the Department of Finance, as is the current practice in the normal course of events. This is in tandem with other work involving negotiations by the Department of Finance as policy lead in this area, such as work at EU level involving financial services regulation. The Deputy may also be aware that, in line with recommendation 17 of the report, the Central Bank published a discussion paper on tokenisation last March, with submissions being invited by 5 June. I understand the intention now is for the Central Bank to publish a feedback statement following this consultation period.
Sentiment score: 0.22
I am very much aware of how important the funds sector is to our employment landscape. Over 60,000 jobs and, as the Deputy pointed out, trillions in assets are domiciled here. As I said, the Department of Finance has the lead policy responsibility for the area. Distributed ledger technology, as the Deputy pointed out, provides a game changer for the sector. It records transactions, and transactions that are recorded in multiple places at the same time. This can provide a huge opportunity for Ireland. What is happening here now is that submissions have been sought. They have been coming into the Central Bank. The Department of Finance will communicate to our Department what changes are needed in the company law code, because our Department is responsible for this area. We will support the growth of the sector in that regard because we have seen how much it has contributed to our economy in terms of jobs and this being a highly regulated sector that has a pathway into the European market that is significant for Ireland. I can, therefore, assure the Deputy of my full attention to this matter.
Sentiment score: 0.22
I am constantly engaging with stakeholders. Indeed, I meet many of them during my weekly business with the Department. I have had some very exciting job announcements in the financial services sector and have discussed this issue in detail with it and in relation to the work the Department of Finance has undertaken. It has been present for some of those announcements, so we are very much aware of the opportunity here. Ireland will absolutely be at the forefront to grasp that opportunity with both hands. I should also point out the highly skilled workforce we have and the capacity to ensure that grows is so important for the sector as well. We are well set, therefore, to grow it further. The IDA has a number of exciting companies growing in this space. There is also our own fintech sector with Fenergo and others that have grown exponentially in recent years. I assure the Deputy of my full attention, and I am working closely with the Department of Finance and the Central Bank on this issue.
Sentiment score: 0.37
I thank the Deputy for a very important question relating to tourism, which is our largest indigenous sector. The programme for Government includes a clear commitment to support and expand food and drink tourism, reflecting its importance in shaping visitor experiences. Food and beverage accounts for approximately 34% of all visitor expenditure. A New Era for Irish Tourism, the Government's national tourism policy, focuses on sustainable development of our tourism sector and increasing the regional and seasonal spread of tourism activity. It includes a commitment to develop a new national culinary strategy to strengthen the quality and reputation of Ireland's food offering. This strategy will build on and complement destination experience development plans that place a strong emphasis on food at a local level. It will support the strengthening and promotion of authentic, sustainable experiences alongside the development of food trails and festivals that drive demand and help sustain over 46,000 tourism-related businesses. These objectives also clearly align with wider Government measures to support competitiveness, which include the reduction in VAT to 9% for food and catering services from next month. Delivering on these commitments requires strong co-ordination and a clear focus on outcomes. In this context, I established a tourism policy oversight group, which will meet for the first time on 8 July. This group will bring together representation across government, agencies, local authorities and industry stakeholders to oversee, monitor and support the delivery of the 71 policy objectives. This group will be supported by targeted delivery streams, including a dedicated culinary stream, to ensure alignment across national and local government. All the key sectors will provide strategic oversight of the strategy's development and delivery. Tourism Ireland is implementing a refreshed culinary tourism approach overseas, addressing outdated perceptions of Irish food and showcasing the quality, freshness and diversity of food and drink across the island as a key driver of destination choice, particularly among European visitors.
Sentiment score: 0.43
Critically, as the Deputy pointed out, the Louth strategy for tourism up to 2031 has key performance indicators, KPIs, to measure exactly the performance and ensure our objectives are realised. I took the view in our tourism plan that if it cannot be measured, it cannot be managed. That is why we have 71 objectives with clear KPIs attached to each. That is why Tourism Ireland has approximately €71 million for 2026 for marketing, and the culinary industry is key to that. We will develop our culinary strategy over this year. It will have a job of work in advancing the proposition that so many of our businesses have. As the Deputy rightly pointed out, there is a vineyard in Louth. There are oysters. There is an incredible offering from the distillery. There are so many attractions to bring people to County Louth. It will be front and centre and will absorb huge resources. We will put in €400 million over the next five years. The culinary industry is unique, genuine and authentic food production that will put us in a good space to attract visitors.
Sentiment score: 0.17
I could not agree more with the Deputy and the proposals she is bringing forward. I look forward to working with her to grow our tourism sector. I particularly look forward to working with our businesses. There are 46,000 businesses across the country that provide a genuine, authentic céad míle fáilte. We will come forward in September or October with a number of supports, capital grants, for attractions and businesses to help them with digitalisation to ensure they can grasp the opportunity that is ahead. Many of our visitors now use generative AI to plan out their itineraries, book and research online. I am working closely with the Minister for agriculture, Deputy Heydon, to ensure that farmers are supported. Right now, for every 200 litre fill of diesel, farmers get €55 to support them in the production of food. That is reducing the price of groceries on tables and reducing the cost of production, critically, for businesses. In budget 2027, we will provide further supports. We had the national economic dialogue, which included a breakout session on agriculture, as well as one on tourism, to discuss the challenges for all the sectoral interests.
Sentiment score: 0.23
First, there is no policy change in this area. My Department’s responsibilities centre around the control of exports of dual-use and military items under EU and national legislation. Controls on the export of dual-use items are administered by my Department in accordance with EU Regulation 2021/821 of the European Parliament and the Council setting up an EU regime for the control of exports, brokering, technical assistance, transit and transfer of dual-use items. The bulk of dual-use exports from Ireland, including those to end users in Israel, are mainstream business ICT products, both hardware and software. They are categorised as dual-use items as a consequence of the fact that they incorporate strong encryption for ICT security purposes. The primary purpose of export controls is not to block trade or exports, but to enable the free movement of legitimate goods, while ensuring that certain sensitive categories are subject to appropriate regulation. All export licence applications are considered by my officials in accordance with criteria set out in the relevant dual-use and military EU and national regulations and Ireland’s international obligations and responsibilities as members of non-proliferation regimes and export control arrangements. Each application is assessed individually by considering the nature of the items, the destination country, the identity of the end user and the intended use. Ireland’s decisions are guided by the EU position and its eight criteria, which include respect for human rights, international obligations, regional stability and risk of diversion to another end user or end use. The risk profile of an application is impacted by current geopolitical factors, the end user, the items in question and their ability to be misused. This risk profile can change on a case-by-case basis. If an application is deemed high risk and the exporter is unable to provide strong assurances to mitigate the risks identified, the application will be denied. As each application is treated on a case-by case basis, the available verifiable information at the time and associated risk assessments can change from application to application.
Sentiment score: 0.07
As I said, there has been no policy change. The law is clear in the Control of Exports Act 2023, as set out by these Houses of which the Deputy is a Member, and in our European obligations under the framework and the eight criteria that have been established. Ireland has been firm and strong in recognising the State of Palestine. We have supported the people of Gaza through the United Nations Relief and Works Agency, UNRWA, the competent authority which provides aid. We strongly supported it when Commissioner Várhelyi tried to unilaterally withdraw key supports to vulnerable citizens. We joined the ICJ case with South Africa and have called out the genocide in Gaza. That is where we are clear. It is all about where the end user is and what the purpose is. There has been no significant increase or decrease in applications being denied. The number of applications went down. That is not a change in policy by the Department. We do not control who comes to the Department seeking a licence. When the number of applications goes down, the value goes down. I assure the House there has been no change in policy whatsoever and no review has taken place either.
Sentiment score: 0.17
Very clearly, it is because it is in compliance with the law and with the criteria set down by the EU. We do not assess applications on the basis of made-up criteria. The criteria are grounded in the EU framework, which has eight clear measures, and the Control of Exports Act set down by this House in 2023. As I said in my substantive response, we have to satisfy ourselves that the end user will not bring any unintended consequences and that citizens are not being harmed by its actions. That is what we have to do. The criteria are clear. The robust procedures we have in the Department for doing that are crystal clear. Ireland has been at the forefront of the European Union in standing with the people of Gaza, in calling for the EU-Israel Association Agreement to be suspended - we were at the forefront of doing that - and supporting the people of Gaza financially. No country has called out as much as Ireland has and the Palestinian Authority recognises that clearly in all our meetings with it.
Sentiment score: 0.35
I thank Deputy Moynihan for his question. My Department is continually monitoring the labour market and the impact of artificial intelligence. We have a number of relevant pieces of research I can cite, including research from the expert group on future skills needs published last year, How AI is transforming the Irish Labour Market. This work highlights the speed at which Ireland is moving in relation to AI, noting the strong demand for AI jobs but also the robust supply pipeline in relation to AI. Ireland has a track record of producing very skilled workers and this is also happening with AI, as work in my Department has shown. Ireland has seen a doubling in AI jobs and usage since 2023. While this is a fast-changing field, it shows the inherent dynamism and resilience of the Irish labour market. This work is currently being updated, which is important given the fluid situation that exists. Furthermore, work published in conjunction with the Department of Finance highlights that the labour market here is highly exposed to AI, given the composition of employment, specifically in relation to ICT, financial and professional services. The work also noted that AI may already be affecting employment patterns, with sectors more exposed to AI, such as ICT and financial services, recording significantly weaker employment growth in recent years. In terms of graduate or entry-level jobs, we are monitoring developments closely and working closely with the Department of Finance. Its latest annual progress report from April 2026 is informative in this regard. It notes that employment growth among 15- to 29-year-olds in sectors at risk to AI declined by 2.5% between 2023 and 2025, despite overall employment increasing. This was particularly pronounced in the ICT sector. More broadly in respect of the labour market, activity levels remain strong, despite a difficult international environment. The latest figures from the Central Statistics Office show that employment growth was effectively flat in quarter 1 of 2026. However, the overall employment levels remains exceptionally high at 2.8 million people.
Sentiment score: 0.22
We are working very closely with all our skills partners and enterprise agencies to ensure training is being delivered in the key sectors that are at risk, namely, graduates, as well as particular cohorts of the employment market like ICT, professional services and legal and financial services. We have a huge amount of skills upgrading to do in those areas. Take the IDA for example. We set out an ambition to train 40,000 people over the four-year strategy and in year one we have hit 33,000. That demonstrates the capacity and training we are doing. There is also a huge amount of opportunity. It is not a period of decline for the labour market but a period of transition in which old functions will change and new opportunities will emerge. Take, for example, our high-performance growth unit in Enterprise Ireland. Of 196 new businesses this year, half of them are grounded in AI. That shows the opportunity there. We are working with the expert group on future skills. Our new national skills observatory, which will be profiling and matching the skills and work our skills partners will be doing, has been established. We will have our AI office up and running from 1 August and it will be building capacity and ensuring our citizens are fully trained to grasp the opportunities that are presented.
Sentiment score: 0.27
We have updated our digital and AI strategy, which has 80 deliverables, while working right across our skill partners to ensure our citizens are getting that transformational training that makes those jobs sticky. We also have done a huge amount of work on establishing our national skills observatory with the Minister, Deputy Lawless, and his Department of further and higher education to profile those skills and to ensure we are having the output from our tertiary education partners that really reflects a changing labour force. It is going to be a big challenge for someone who started a course in third level two or three years ago as the labour market has changed significantly, particularly at entry level. We have a huge amount of training and skills profiling in relation to that. I mentioned what our colleagues in the IDA are doing in making a database of 300,000 employees and making those jobs more sticky and targeting them before they come under pressure. The key thing we are trying to do is predict the cohorts that are under pressure and get that training in, get in with our employers and offer them the training so employees can benefit from it and ultimately secure the jobs rather than leaving them exposed to artificial intelligence.
Sentiment score: 0.30