By Business & Finance 
The Government unveiled “Ireland for Finance”- the new strategy for the further development of the international financial services (IFS) sector in Ireland to 2025.
The Strategy was jointly launched by Minister for Finance & Public Expenditure and Reform, Paschal Donohoe TD, and Minister of State for Financial Services and Insurance, Michael D’Arcy TD.
The vision of the Strategy is for Ireland to be a top-tier global location of choice for specialist international financial services.
“Ireland for Finance” builds upon “IFS2020”, the previous IFS five-year strategy for the development of the international financial services sector launched in 2015. Some key outputs from IFS2020 were the creation of 9,000 jobs and the launch of the annual European Financial Forum in Dublin Castle.
“The Government’s new Ireland for Finance strategy represents a positive new vision for the Irish banking and finance sector,” said Mr McDonagh, Hays Ireland Managing Director Mike McDonagh.
Minister Paschal Donohoe should be commended for his continued ambition to position Ireland as a top-tier global location for specialist financial services, in addition to his commitment to restoring confidence in the banking and finance sector as a key driver of the Irish economy.
Financial services roles in Ireland
The employment target for the new Strategy is to reach 50,000 people in direct employment in the sector by 2025. This compares with 44,000 people directly employed in the sector at the end of 2018.
In formulating the Strategy, the Government has taken account of current and future developments while also exploring potential challenges and opportunities, especially the potential impact of technology, both positive and negative.
Commenting on the launch of the new strategy Minister Donohoe said:-
Unless you can change to meet the ongoing challenges and opportunities of our modern dynamic world, there is a danger of standing still and eventual decline. The ‘Ireland for Finance’ Strategy has been formulated to meet the challenges and opportunities that lie ahead for the international financial services sector. Ireland has within its grasp the opportunity to be a world leader by 2025, as a global location for financial services and as a source of technological and innovation-led solutions. It is essential that both the public and private sectors and the educational institutions continue to work together to avail of this great opportunity.
Commenting on the launch of the new Strategy Minister of State D’Arcy said:
A new strategy moving forward
The Strategy is structured around the following four pillars:
1. The operating environment pillar is focused on ensuring the policy, culture and legislative conditions underpinning IFS will support growth;
2. The technology and innovation pillar is focused on providing a collaborative approach to addressing emerging challenges and opportunities in technological developments;
3. The talent pillar seeks to ensure that we continue to have skilled people to meet the demands of the IFS sector, including meeting new and changing skills ; and
4. The communications and promotion pillar is focused on ensuring that Ireland’s IFS offering is communicated to all those who are or may be attracted to investing in Ireland.
