The Government plans to radically overhaul the way it markets and supports the Irish financial services industry following criticism that it is not doing enough to promote inward investment, writes Jamie Smyth
IDA Ireland and the Department of the Taoiseach will formally announce the decision later this week and have already appointed nine staff to a special unit to devise the new strategy.
The agency, which is responsible for attracting investment in the area of financial services, also plans to recruit a team of international consultants to assess global trends in the industry.
The consultants will be hired to report on the future competitive advantages which will be necessary for the Republic to sustain a leadership position as a financial services location. Advice on specific areas of opportunity and of potential threat is also required, says the official tender.
The Government decision to establish the International Financial Services Centre (IFSC) in Dublin in 1987 has resulted in the Republic becoming a major European hub for financial services.
About 12,000 people currently work at the IFSC in Dublin and approximately 48,000 work in the industry as a whole and total bank assets were valued at €229 billion as at September 2002, according to the Central Bank.
But in recent years the industry has expressed fears that Ireland has been losing its competitive position as other low tax regimes aggressively compete for banking and funds business.
Ms Aileen O'Donoghue, director of IBEC's Financial Services Ireland, said yesterday there was a sense that the IDA had taken a "foot off the peddle" in relation to financial services.
"It is now a very difficult environment. Before we were an easy sell and now it is harder because of the more difficult trading environment," she added.
There have also been some high profile job losses in the Irish financial industry, with firms such as Dresdner and ABN Amro cutting back operations or reviewing their investments.
And earlier this year Mr Willie Slattery, chief executive of State Street International (Ireland) and chairman of industry body Financial Services Ireland, said he expected job numbers in the IFSC to fall during 2003.
