Noonan presses Ireland’s Fintech credentials to Stripe
IT’S not every day you meet Ireland’s two youngest billionaires. However, the Department of Finance was left scrambling through Minister Michael Noonan’s diary when he was reminded of a meeting with fellow Limerick men Patrick and John Collison on a trip last year to San Francisco.
According to records released under Freedom of Information, officials concluded that the former finance minister could have had a chance meeting with the pair. “It is possible that you might have met them at a networking event,” Noonan was advised in some briefing notes ahead of a meeting with Michael Cocoman, international regulatory lead with the Collisons’ payments company Stripe. The Fintech firm, which is now valued at over $9bn (€7.9bn), has an Irish office in Grand Canal Street, the heart of the city’s Silicon Docks. As Dublin strives to become a player in the hot Fintech sector, Cocoman’s request for a meeting to “discuss our plans for Ireland”, was unmissable (despite Noonan’s lapse in memory).
Officials briefed Noonan that the meeting could “provide an opportunity to outline Ireland’s many strengths and competitive advantages as an FDI location.”
No word yet as to whether or not Stripe would like to expand its presence in Dublin, although an additional document was not released as it could “prejudice the outcome of negotiations”. Make of that what you will.