THE potential for Limerick to support job growth in the financial services sector is flourishing, a sold out #CapitalLimerick seminar in Dublin has heard.
Amidst rapid and unprecedented growth in the sector, the potential for further developing the Financial Services sector in Limerick was explored by a panel of experts this week in Dublin.
IDA Regional Business Development manager Niall O’Callaghan said that “financial services in the Mid West Region, with Limerick at its core, is flourishing. Building on the tradition of aircraft Leasing, and with the continued growth of Northern Trust, we have seen the evolution of FinTech and eCommerce by companies such as Digital River, ACI Worldwide, and most recently First Data”.
He said the Mid-West was now a viable, competitive regional location for international operations “with access to a large talent pool, international connectivity and an unrivalled work-life balance”.
Kevin Thompson, Insurance Ireland chief executive, told the audience that financial services firms tend to cluster in financial centres and that this was an important factor.
University of Limerick senior economics lecturer Dr Stephen Kinsella outlined how he thinks Ireland should compete for post-Brexit and other foreign direct investment but that “Ireland, with a small open economy, should be mindful not to over-rely on foreign investment and not to turn its back on small to medium indigenous financial services”.
Clair Hayes, solicitor and founder of Capital Limerick said that the group wants everyone to play their part in optimising the potential for the city and the wider Mid West region.
Wednesday night’s speakers included Eamonn Fallon, Senior Vice President, supporting fund administration services, at Northern Trust, in Ireland; Dr. Stephen Kinsella, Senior Economics Lecturer at Limerick University; Niall O’Callaghan, Business & Relationship Manager with IDA Ireland for the Mid West Region, Kevin Thompson, Chief Executive of Insurance Ireland and Andrea Linehan, Director of the Small Firms Association and Commercial Director of Grid Finance.
#CapitalLimerick
Capital Limerick was established last year by a group of Dublin-based professional people from Limerick. They came together to help build on the momentum that is gathering around Limerick’s resurgence, and the group is reaching out to the thousands of Limerick people living, working and achieving at the highest levels in Dublin, and who want to see their home place front-and-centre of Ireland’s economic, social and cultural landscape.
As well as Clair Hayes, an associate solicitor in commercial law firm Matheson, the Founding Committee includes Barry Duggan, Communications Director, Fine Gael; Brian Geoghegan, former IBEC Director of Economic Affairs; Stephen O’Byrnes, PR consultant with MKC Communications, Seamus Hennessy of the STL Group; Niamh O’Carroll of O’Carroll Consulting; Patricia Ryan, Government Adviser, and Paul Stapleton, general manager of Electric Ireland.
Last November, Capital Limerick held a very successful inaugural business lunch in Dublin, which attracted over 250 attendees from Dublin and Limerick. On that occasion, a panel comprising. Trish Long, Vice President and General Manager of Disney, Ireland; John Moran, Board Member of the European Investment Bank and former Secretary General of the Department of Finance, and Prof Desmond Fitzgerald, the new President of the University of Limerick, discussed the economic and cultural resurgence of Limerick.
