DUBLIN'S International Financial Services Centre is already contributing more than £200 million a year in taxes to the Exchequer, and could employ up to 10,000 people in the years ahead, the Government said yesterday. A new report on the future of the IFSC says the Taoiseach should be given formal control of all Government aspects of the project.
"The IFSC has been a phenomenal success, with growth rates that, year after year in its first decade of existence, have out-stripped all expectations," said the Minister of State at the Department of the Taoiseach Mr Gay Mitchell. "We now have 3,500 people directly employed by more than 400 companies in the centre, with commitments from existing IFSC companies to increase that number to 6,000."
Mr Mitchell said he believed it would be realistic to talk in terms of 10,000 jobs on-site within a relatively short period.
"More than one million square feet of office accommodation has been built, is currently under construction or is being planned the tax take to the Exchequer is well in excess of £200 million a year, and growth in sectors such as insurance, banking and managed funds volumes, which are now estimated to be in excess of 550 billion (£33 billion), has been absolutely remarkable," he added.
The report of the international advisory group on the IFSC - set up by the Government to consider the future development of the centre - recommends that the Taoiseach be given formal responsibility for the formulation and implementation of Government policy on the centre. Currently the Department of the Taoiseach has an informal role in co-ordinating policy among several ministers.
Mr Mitchell said the advisory group, which he chaired, considered establishing a single, dedicated agency, serving as a one-stop shop with regulatory and supervisory responsibility.
"However, the advisory group concluded that this proposal was not feasible," Mr Mitchell added.
Other recommendations include:
. establishing a DART or Luas link between the IFSC and Dublin Airport;
. setting up a third-level college to be located in the centre as a guard against skills shortages;
. a re-evaluation of the policy of making location in the immediate Custom House Docks area a statutory condition of the low tax-rate, with location in the wider Dublin Docklands Authority area being considered as a substitute;
. the introduction of a mobility and secondment system between the Central Bank and the financial services industry.
"The success of a regulated international financial services centre depends at local level on having the necessary legislative support, in product and taxation, capable of accommodating a complex, sophisticated and constantly evolving business," Mr Mitchell said.
At the gathering to release the report, the managing director of Germany's Helaba bank, Mr Alex Meyer, complained that commercial rents in the centre were double what they were in the rest of the city and were now on a par with Switzerland.
"What they have established here is a monopoly with no controls and that's always bad," Mr Meyer added.
Mr Mitchell said that there was now competition among lessors in the IFSC, and that this, combined with expansion, would be likely to reduce the costs over time.
