Finance jobs 'to be key' in new PPF

Any successor to the Programme for Prosperity and Fairness should identify key objectives to advance jobs and business for Ireland's international financial services sector, the Taoiseach said last night

Mr Ahern said the continuing partnership between the Government and the industry had been a significant factor underpinning the development of the International Financial Services Centre (IFSC).

"I believe that it is a great foundation for our future work on the challenges ahead" he said.

The Taoiseach, who was addressing the Financial Services Ireland, said that while economic conditions within the economy had tightened, domestic activity would shortly improve if a global recovery gathered place.

"It is important that realism should guide us all. We have it in our own hands, to a large degree, to determine how the Irish economy will perform over the coming years.

"If we make the right decisions about things that are within our control, we can be confident that the future for jobs and living standards will be bright."

He said a less favourable economic climate will have to be borne in mind in the forthcoming negotiations on a new social partnership agreement.

"In order to secure an agreed successful outcome, it will be imperative that expectations should keep in line with current economic realities. That will be essential to sustaining and building competitiveness, thereby safeguarding the impressive progress of recent years, most notably with regard to employment creation."

The Taoiseach also emphasised the importance of Ireland's membership of the EU to the success of the IFSC and urged industry representatives to vote in favour of the Nice Treaty.

"It has been as vital to the thousands of jobs there, as it has been to the progress we have made in the whole economy. And I look forward to asking people to defend that progress and to secure those jobs by voting Yes in the Nice referendum."

He added that the IFSC was one of the clearest examples of the benefits of Ireland's engagement with Europe and the world.