Latest news with #CharlesHaughey
Observer
3 days ago
- Business
- Observer
Rise in jobs in Ireland's financial services after Brexit.
The number of jobs in Ireland's financial sector has seen a major increase from 35,000 in 2015 to just over 60,000 now, an increase of almost 70 per cent, according to a consultation paper published by the Department of Finance. It credits Brexit with some of that increase, pointing out that the sector in Ireland has thrived since Britain voted to leave the European Union in 2016. 'Ireland is now home to many global financial giants, many of whom have chosen it as their EMEA (Europe, Middle East, Africa) head-quarters,' the paper says. 'Post Brexit, Ireland experienced a further influx of IFS (International Financial Services) firms relocating from the UK. Financial services is one of the largest sectors in the UK economy too. It employs 1.2 million people across the country. It is also one of the UK's most internationally facing sectors: the UK is the world's largest net exporter of financial services and the sector accounts for more than half of the UK's surplus in services export. The Department of Finance in Ireland concedes that the Brexit bounce is probably over, and the financial sector will have to look for other ways to develop in the face of mounting international competition for investment. 'The benefits from Brexit relocations, one of the drivers of growth in the sector in recent years, will likely be limited in the future,' the paper says. 'Competition from growing international financial services hubs, such as Singapore and Dubai, is increasing.' Among the other challenges are the green transition, which has led to both Ireland and the European Union making promises on climate and sustainability objectives, which the financial services sector will have to assist with, by channelling investment towards appropriate projects. Another challenge is to lure more household savings from bank accounts into 'productive investments'. The consultation process launched by the Department is to prepare a new 'Ireland for Finance' strategy to develop the international financial services sector. The strategy began in 1987 under the then Taoiseach (prime minister), Charles Haughey, acting on the advice of businessman Dermot Desmond. He introduced policy supports and tax breaks to attract IFS activity into Ireland, and the strategy was so successful that it gradually transformed the country into a globally important hub. The consultation paper says Ireland now hosts about 600 IFS companies, and is the sixth-largest exporter of financial services globally, and the third largest domicile for funds. 'Ireland's market share has continuously grown over decades, as specialisation and expertise in various areas has developed. Ireland is now home to some of the world's largest IFS companies in sub-sectors such as banking, funds, asset management, insurance and reinsurance, fintech, and aircraft leasing,' it says. Leveraging off the presence of global tech firms, the country has become a hub for payments firms, and a specialist hub for aircraft leasing, with over 60 per cent of the world's leased aircraft managed from Ireland. A report by Indecon last year on the impact of the funds and asset management industry concluded that the sector provided almost one billion euros in direct tax revenue in 2023 alone. The Programme for Government set a target of 9,000 new jobs in the IFS sector by 2030. The new 'Ireland for Finance' strategy will aim to meet that, but the Department is cautioning that in the current economic climate, keeping the jobs we have is a key consideration. A public consultation period will run until 19 September. Stakeholders are being asked for their views on how Ireland can expand the sector, but also to identify any barriers to competitiveness and growth.
Irish Post
23-07-2025
- Business
- Irish Post
Ireland's financial services hit record levels
IRELAND'S financial services sector has reached a major milestone, now employing more than 60,000 people—up from just 35,500 in 2015. The nearly 70% growth over the past decade is in part to do with Brexit, which caused many companies to relocate operations from Britain to Ireland. However, a new consultation paper from the Department of Finance warns that this Brexit-driven momentum is likely coming to an end. The paper, published as part of a public consultation process on the next phase of the 'Ireland for Finance' strategy, highlights the need for new approaches to ensure continued growth in the sector. 'Ireland is now home to many global financial services giants, many of whom have chosen it as their EMEA headquarters,' the paper notes. 'Post-Brexit, Ireland experienced a further influx of IFS firms relocating from the UK.' But it also cautions that the advantages gained from Brexit are likely to diminish as emerging international hubs like Singapore and Dubai ramp up efforts to attract financial services companies. Launched in 1987 under then-Taoiseach Charles Haughey, the 'Ireland for Finance' strategy has helped transform the country into a global financial services powerhouse. Today, Ireland hosts approximately 600 international financial services companies and ranks as the sixth-largest exporter of financial services in the world. It is also the third-largest domicile for investment funds and has developed strong specialisations in sectors such as banking, funds, asset management, insurance, reinsurance, fintech and aircraft leasing. Minister of State at the Department of Finance, Robert Troy, said Ireland's success stems from a clear and consistent policy approach. In a recent interview with FinTech Magazine, he pointed to fintech as a core focus area of the current strategy. 'This is a sector where we've seen rapid growth over the last decade,' he said. 'And I think that growth probably stems from the fact that we had a clear strategy for Ireland for finance.' Troy also underscored the need for balanced regulation, noting that the Central Bank of Ireland's 'strict but fair' approach has been essential to maintaining investor confidence. 'We're dealing with people's savings, with transferring assets. They want certainty and protections in place.' In addition to rising global competition, the consultation paper outlines other challenges for the sector, including the green transition and sustainability objectives set by both Ireland and the EU. The paper notes that the financial services industry will play a critical role in funding climate-related projects. It also highlights the need to encourage people to move savings from low-interest bank accounts into more productive investments that support long-term economic development. The Programme for Government has set a goal of creating 9,000 new jobs in the IFS sector by 2030, but the Department of Finance warns that in today's uncertain global environment, simply holding onto existing jobs is equally important. Last year, a report by Indecon found that the funds and asset management sector alone delivered nearly €1 billion in direct tax revenue. The public consultation, which is open until September 19, invites stakeholders to contribute their views on how Ireland can continue to grow its financial services sector while identifying barriers to competitiveness. The next phase of the 'Ireland for Finance' strategy will aim to ensure that Ireland remains a globally attractive destination for financial firms, even as the international landscape becomes more complex. See More: Economy, Finance, Finance Minister, Robert Troy
Irish Times
12-07-2025
- Business
- Irish Times
The real Temple Bar: Thriving cultural quarter or ‘a violent post-apocalyptic place'?
Ask any Dubliner where to go for pricey pints, tourist tat, and the type of 'traditional Irish' establishment they would never themselves frequent, and they'll happily give directions to Temple Bar . Ask them to point towards Dublin's cultural quarter, however, and they are likely to be a bit nonplussed. Temple Bar has, since its inception, been promoted as the city's cultural quarter, but most would agree it has strayed considerably from that vision. The origins of the present-day Temple Bar lie in a plan devised 50 years ago by CIÉ to develop a new central bus station for the city. From the mid-1970s the company began to buy up buildings, and the many derelict sites, in the area between Dame Street and the south Liffey quays with a view to levelling them for the new transport hub. Government funding was slow to follow the transport company's scheme, so with admirable fiscal rectitude CIÉ rented out the properties (those not in use as surface car parks at least) at low rents to Dublin's 'bohemian' set – artists, musicians and independent retailers – and in doing so sowed the seeds of the demise of its bus garage plans. READ MORE Taoiseach Charles Haughey saw an urban development opportunity, far beyond what had grown organically, and threw CIÉ under the bus, so to speak. He envisioned a district of 'attractive small places' with 'recording studios, places for the music industry, art galleries, studios' and also 'pubs, restaurants, discos – anything that contributes to a lively inner city young people's place'. An urban renewal act and a tax incentive scheme came into force in 1991, a development company – Temple Bar Properties – was established, and Temple Bar was born. People enjoying the pub scene in Temple Bar. Photograph: Dara Mac Dónaill It didn't take long before property prices began to rise, as they did across the city in the 1990s, and for the more lucrative enterprises – pubs, night clubs, hotels and restaurants, to start pushing out the artists and smaller independent operators. By end of the decade it had become a byword for hedonism, even targeted in 2001 by a Channel 4 documentary series of the type that focused on the bad behaviour of 'Brits abroad', though generally in sunnier climes. [ The rise and fall of the Temple Bar dream: 'I feared that our home would become uninhabitable' Opens in new window ] In part to counteract this image, the Noughties saw a definite shift in emphasis in the development of Temple Bar from growth to management, with Temple Bar Properties becoming the Temple Bar Cultural Trust in 2005. However, within a few years that entity had run into difficulties, with several reports and audits identifying financial, governance and regulatory weaknesses. In 2013 a decision was made to dissolve the trust and transfer its functions to Dublin City Council . People walk through Merchant's Arch in Temple Bar, Dublin. Photograph: Dara Mac Dónaill In 2016 the council published a public realm plan to improve the area, which resulted in not very much for quite a long time, but eventually in 2023 led to a €5 million upgrade of Temple Bar Square, the focal point of the eastern end of Temple Bar. The year 2016 also saw a significant intervention in the fight against overtourism in the district, spearheaded not by the council but by Temple Bar residents who sought a ruling on whether or not planning permission was required to use an apartment for holiday rentals. The council planners determined it was required, a ruling upheld by An Bord Pleanála . This ultimately led to a city-wide and then State-wide crackdown on the unauthorised use of homes for short-term letting, and while that battle goes on, it would never have started without the intervention of those residents. People passing through Temple Bar in the afternoon. Photographs: Dara Mac Dónaill The council has in recent years upped its game in efforts to rein in the worst excesses of Temple Bar, using the planning process. The 2022-2028 city development plan includes a number of provisions to guard against the expansion of pubs and takeaways, and to avoid the concentration of the types of shops which would 'reinforce particular activities in the area to the detriment of the cultural, residential and social functions of the area'. A number of planning applications have been refused by the council since these provisions were introduced, though some of these decisions have been overturned on appeal to An Bord Pleanála. The council has, in the last two years, increased the number of artists' studios in Temple Bar and plans to refurbish the long-closed Eden restaurant in Meeting House Square to provide more. It is also in the process of taking ownership of the historic Smock Alley Theatre at the western end of Temple Bar to create a new Dublin municipal theatre. Visitors outside Project Arts Centre in Temple Bar. Photograph: Dara Mac Dónaill Perhaps the council's most significant physical intervention in Temple Bar is its most recent: the removal of traffic from Parliament Street since July 4th, which is likely to attract more activity, from the eastern end of the district. Some in the quieter west end may have misgivings over what may be drawn upon them. The image of Temple Bar has been severely tarnished by several violent assaults – on tourists, as well as on two off-duty gardaí . The stark depiction by Judge Pauline Codd, at an assault sentencing hearing last year, said Temple Bar was becoming a ' a violent post-apocalyptic place'. 'It's shocking to see it, that people can't be safe down there. It makes it a no-go area for people.' The IFI in Temple Bar. Photograph: Dara Mac Dónaill People stroll through Cow's Lane in Temple Bar. Photograph: Dara Mac Dónaill Martin Harte, chief executive of business group the Temple Bar Company, says dystopian assessments are not fair characterisations of the area. 'I think a lot of the criticism and the view or positioning of Temple Bar comes from the late 1990s and early Noughties and that massive, mad drink culture. It was true then, there were queues outside every pub and hotel; it certainly isn't true now,' Harte says. He argues that there is an overconcentration of addiction and homeless services throughout the city centre. However, he believes the district is moving closer to the original vision of a cultural, entertainment area, but also a residential quarter. 'Certainly in last couple of years the vintage clothes shops are back, the tattoo parlours, the cafes, the cultural collectives, the private galleries – they've really come back. Of course some have been lost, but a huge amount have come, and Temple Bar has a thriving cultural scene. I think it's probably going to get closer to what people thought it might be in the first place. I think its best years are ahead of it,' Harte says.
Irish Times
05-07-2025
- Politics
- Irish Times
Is it time to acknowledge the legislative achievements of Charles Haughey?
Approaching the centenary of his birth in September, and 60 years after the passing of the Succession Act in 1965, is it time to give greater credit to the legislative record of Charles Haughey ? As minister for justice from 1961-1964, Haughey, still in his 30s, introduced ground-breaking legislation that would change lives. It included the Criminal Justice Act, 1964, which abolished the death penalty with exceptions retained for killing gardaí, prison officers and diplomats. These exceptions were removed in 1990 when Haughey was taoiseach. He also introduced the Adoption Act, 1964, which built on the 1952 Adoption Act and emphasised the rights of the child and the birth mother. And it was Haughey who introduced the Succession Bill in 1964 before becoming minister for agriculture later that year. His successor as minister for justice, Brian Lenihan snr, saw the Bill through the Oireachtas in 1965. READ MORE The resulting Succession Act entitles a surviving spouse to a portion of the estate of the deceased spouse, whether or not a will exists. If there is no will, the surviving spouse is entitled to the whole estate if there are no children or two-thirds of the estate if there are children while the children receive one-third. Even if there is a will, the surviving spouse is entitled to half the estate if there are no children and one-third if there are children. The Act marked a giant leap forward in family life and law. Before the Succession Act, it was possible for one spouse to exclude the other from benefiting from his estate. For example, a man could leave his farm to a male relative without making any provision for his widow. The old days of cutting the wife off without a shilling or threatening that if she remarried she would have to give up her life tenancy ... that kind of thing is all gone — Pat Lindsay, former TD in his book Memories In seeking a solution to this problem, Haughey was assisted by outstanding civil servants including Roger Hayes and Paddy Terry. They provided invaluable help, which he acknowledged. Another factor that prompted Haughey to introduce the Succession Bill was the large amount of money, sometimes even a farm, being left to the church while widows were neglected. Patrick Hillery, later president of Ireland, had encountered this phenomenon in the course of his medical practice in Co Clare. Pat Lindsay, a lawyer and a Fine Gael Dáil deputy at the time the Act was passed, observed in his book Memories how since the passing of the Act 'the old days of cutting the wife off without a shilling or threatening that if she remarried she would have to give up her life tenancy ... that kind of thing is all gone'. But opposition came from Fine Gael in the Dáil and the Seanad and in its document The Just Society, published in the same year as the Succession Act was passed. In that document, a section dealing with a proposed law reform programme stated that 'such follies as Fianna Fáil's Succession Bill will find no place in such a programme', although it did say that the rights of widows and dependent children would be protected. In Dáil debates, former taoiseach John A Costello , father of Declan Costello, originator of The Just Society document, praised many aspects of the Bill. He pointed to situations where, under prevailing conditions, wives were 'badly treated'. However, future taoiseach Garret FitzGerald opposed the Bill in the Seanad. Haughey had personal insight into the possible plight of widows. He was 22 in 1947 when his father died, aged 49, leaving a widow and seven children. Haughey's sister, Ethna, recalled how Cathal, as he was known in the family, phoned their mother regularly when she returned from early-morning Mass. The Succession Act came late for many, not only widows. In 1936, Osmond Esmonde contested his father's will in which his father, Thomas, had left his entire estate to his second wife. Following a lengthy court hearing, the court opted in favour of Osmond's stepmother. Not a shilling for the only surviving son. In 2023, the Law Reform Commission published a review of the Succession Act. A number of changes had taken place since 1965, including the Status of Children Act, 1987, which abolished the concept of illegitimacy. This was of major importance. But the Succession Act, 1965, remains Haughey's legislative innovation. Dr Finola Kennedy was lecturer in economics at UCD when appointed to the Second Commission on the Status of Women set up by Charles Haughey
Irish Examiner
01-07-2025
- Politics
- Irish Examiner
Government proposal on triple Lock gives an Irish solution to an Irish problem
I welcome the Government's latest proposals to fully restore Irish sovereignty over decisions to deploy Irish troops on armed missions overseas. It's time to unlock the triple lock. The rejection by the Irish people of the Nice referendum on the June 7, 2001, was a uniquely Irish generated crisis. The treaty was aimed at preparing the then 15-member state union for its biggest enlargement to 27 member states by 2007. Crucially, it had to be ratified by all member states but only Ireland was obliged to conduct a referendum. In effect, the failed referendum had blocked — or at least threatened to seriously derail — one of the most ambitious projects of the European Union. The news was most keenly felt by the 8,000 Irish citizens living and working in Brussels, particularly the approximately 100 Irish diplomats and civil servants attached to the Irish Permanent Representation to the EU. After almost 30 years of hard work, Ireland's reputation as a model EU member state had evaporated overnight. From model state to pariah state, Ireland was seen to have benefitted greatly from EU handouts and then stabbed the union in the back. The international media feasted with a frenzy on the carcass of Ireland's EU reputation. Those of us Irish working in the Brussels bubble were detached from the reality of politics at home. It was realised in Dublin that if we continued to block the expansion, the EU would do us no favours There was still time to run another referendum, but new parameters had to be included to mollify the ideologues of neutrality. Taking inspiration from former health minister Charles Haughey's solution to the problem of legalising contraceptives in 1979, the Nice Treaty required 'an Irish solution to an Irish problem'. In the end, however, instead of a doctor's prescription, all we needed was UN approval. The triple lock was born. It was rushed from the Rotunda to Leinster House, quickly baptised, and greeted by the people. Within a year, the bonny baby triple lock, a child genius at age one, secured the second Nice referendum. The day was saved. Ireland was saved. Former states that had emerged from communism were able to join the EU. Peacekeeping missions For the first few years, the child grew and was doted on by everyone. Its tantrums were gently tolerated, even when it insisted that any one of the five permanent members of the UN Security Council — China, France, Russia, US, and Britain — can effectively withhold UN approval on Irish participation in overseas peacekeeping missions. One of the unintended possible consequences of retaining the triple lock limits the State's capability to rescue Irish citizens in trouble abroad. The obvious example is in crisis-prone countries, such as countries in Africa, where thousands of Irish missionaries and NGO staff are working. The competition among UN permanent members is such that, in almost every conflict in Africa, they are pitted against each other to the extent that security council approval is very difficult or impossible. In the event of the EU mounting an armed rescue mission, where UN approval could not be achieved, the triple lock would block Irish troops' participation in missions aimed at saving the lives of our own people. The triple lock undermines Irish sovereignty and should have been constitutionally challenged years ago. Why should we be subservient to any foreign power when it is not even reciprocated? It was a self-imposed straitjacket. Another restriction was that the maximum number of armed Irish troops that could be sent abroad without Dáil approval was set at 12. Why 12? Was somebody over influenced by that Second World War action film The Dirty Dozen? The one where tough guy, cigar-chomping Telly Savalas toured military prisons to recruit 12 military psychopaths for a special operation. Recently, in the Letters to the Editor column of the Irish Examiner,fellow veteran Tim O'Connell explained why 50 was the right number for small unit operations abroad. Based on the infantry platoon of 34, the remaining 16 would be specialist support elements selected for the specific mission. Even Luxembourg has sent more troops abroad than that without external approval. Irish neutrality was never dependent on the triple lock. The neutrality policy preceded the triple lock by 60 years. In reality, the triple lock undermines Irish neutrality by empowering five foreign powers to veto the sovereign will of our Government and the Dáil. At last, Houdini himself has come back from the dead to unravel the straitjacket. The Government's proposed legislation has realistically broadened its application to most of the situations we can foresee at this stage. In practice, the changes effectively decouple future governments neatly from the permanent members' veto. Times have changed. The blissfully unaware Irish public should no longer be kept in the dark on security and defence matters. A properly informed public in 2001, would most probably have passed the first Nice referendum and avoided the need for the triple lock in the first place. Colonel Dorcha Lee (ret) is a former Irish military advisor and military representative in Brussels.
