BUSINESS: Minister of State for financial services visits Cork to promote REGIONAL financial services

Taking in meetings with IDA and Enterprise Ireland client companies and a roundtable with local authority and academic experts, Minister D’Arcy will emphasise the win-win of forging closer links between Dublin and regional hubs. Commenting on his programme he noted,

“Cork has led the way in achieving a critical mass of financial services companies, and is well placed to further benefit from leveraging the financial services expertise in UCC and Cork Institute of Technology. I look forward to exploring how we can further support Cork and replicate its model in other regional hubs.
By focussing on 4-5 existing regional clusters of financial service activities and better aligning them with investment in infrastructure and regional centres of expertise we have an opportunity to attract talent and investment to these regions from both Dublin and further afield.”

This programme, the third in Cork, is the latest in a series undertaken by his predecessors across the country. Minister D’Arcy will continue this with programmes in North-west and South-east in the autumn as well as travelling to the UK, US and mainland Europe to promote the ‘IFS Ireland’ brand and offering. On the wider strategic approach to the regions Minister D’Arcy commented,

“Now, mid-way through the government’s five year strategy for the sector, is the right time to review and consolidate the information and intelligence gathered from the regional programmes undertaken to date. In autumn I will convene a dedicated forum* aimed at identifying those policies that can best support the development of regional hubs for this sector. In the coming weeks Department of Finance officials will start the process of liaising with stakeholders through the IFS2020 framework to begin consideration of the mid-term review together with measures for Action Plan 2018.”