But even a sunny day doesn't make Dublin perfect in Logue's view.

"The organisational structure and intellectual capital are here, but there are large pools of intellectual capital elsewhere, where the cost of occupancy is less and the labour cost is less, " he said.

Logue is chairman and chief executive of State Street Bank, the biggest fund administrator and custodian in Ireland, employing 1,300 people in Dublin, Kilkenny, Naas and Drogheda. He chats about Dublin's poor infrastructure, competition for staff and churning of staff as people switch jobs to get up the property ladder. For the past six months, State Street has turned to Poland to recruit for its Irish operation.

Logue was in Ireland to deliver the keynote speech at the Irish funds industry's annual conference at the K Club. It's a big event. About 7,000 people work directly in the Irish funds industry. One-third of the $1 trillion assets of the worldwide hedge fund business are administered in Dublin. In March this year, 3,707 collective investment schemes were registered in Ireland, with a net asset value of 639bn.

Logue sees an opportunity for the Irish funds industry to double, but warned that government needs to work with business to create an environment where the industry can continue to thrive.

"There has to be a realisation that there is a wonderful opportunity, and I'm not sure there is that realisation."

He is very clear on the biggest potential new opportunity for Dublin:

pooled European pension funds. Creaking European public pension schemes are coming under increasing strain, and he predicts a flood of private money into costefficient pension asset pools that operate on a pan-European level.

As local European barriers erode, the idea is that the assets of many pension funds are combined into one big asset pool overseen by a chosen investment manager, which may then outsource asset management and custody services.

Because these funds will be complex to administer they could provide an opportunity for either Dublin or Luxembourg to leverage their experience, Logue said. "The question is who is going to move to that next level."

Ireland will need to make a coordinated effort to create a similar centre to the IFSC for servicing these pension vehicles, Logue said. Otherwise, it runs the risk of ending up in the commoditised end of the business and losing out to cheaper centres. State Street has already been moving some commoditised business to India from other centres including Ireland. This year, for example, it will move 60 Irish jobs to India.

Another opportunity for Ireland will be the hedge fund industry, as more investors chase the 'alpha' return over stock market indices. Logue predicted that the hedge funds industry will grow as the funds head into a period of tighter regulation. More regulation creates more acceptance, he said. Recent State Street research found that 63% of pension funds are more comfortable with pensions than they were a year ago.

Assets in European mutual funds, pension funds and insurance funds now total nearly 15 trillion.

In the race to win new business, Ireland's funds industry has the advantage of critical mass. But the industry warns that there is no time for complacency.

The battle for the next wave of business is heating up.

"You'd be hard-pressed in any week not to find an eastern European delegation over here trying to find out how Ireland did it, " said Aileen O'Donoghue, Ibec director of financial services. Delegations have been arriving from everywhere from Canada to Dubai, she said.

The threat has not gone unnoticed by government . . .

which is not surprising as the IFSC employs 16,000 people directly. By the end of the summer, the IFSC Clearing House Group coordinated by the Department of the Taoiseach is due to deliver a policy paper for Ireland's international financial services industry.

This paper will set out government's stall on how far it is prepared to go to cooperate with the industry to develop it further. Among the needs O'Donoghue identifies is greater focus on fourth-level training and a need for clarity on the role of the regulator.

"One issue to be addressed will be to be sure the regulator sees itself as having a role in supporting and developing the industry, " she said. "There needs to be a differentiation between how you regulate a retail as opposed to a business-to-business relationship."

One useful contribution government could make is to make it easier to establish operations outside Dublin, Logue said. State Street sees the kind of 'hub and spoke' structure that it has in place as the only viable way forward, and the IDA agrees.

The agency "has a very clear policy of regionalisation of the funds industry", said Deirdre Lyons, IDA manager of international finance, who was in Bermuda last week trying to drum up reinsurance business for Ireland. She cited last year's opening of fund administration operations in Cork by Citco and AIB/Bank of New York, and Bisys' opening of a Waterford office.

The IDA is pushing to win new types of business, Lyons said. It has been chasing pooled pension funds since January, targeting a mix of multinationals with activities across several European jurisdictions, asset managers and pensions advisers such as Mercer.

"In my optimistic days, I believe this could be as big as the funds administration industry is, " Lyons forecast.

"We have to win the asset pools and liability pools to make sure we get the downstream administrative work."

Hedge fund managers are also a top target, and the agency has been out talking to hedge fund managers over the past few months. There have been some wins, but it's hard to get the managers in, Lyons said.

"We don't have the reputation and their natural home is where the money is."

Among the selling points the IDA is pushing are Ireland's regulatory framework, availability of skills and network of double-tax treaties.

Ireland has 44 treaties in place and is negotiating another 10.

But the international marketers will need to pull everything they have out of the bag.

"If you're talking about funds, our main competitors include Canada, Switzerland, Singapore and parts of Scotland, " Lyons said.

Luxembourg, which got its nose knocked out of joint by Ireland's first emergence from nowhere, will be a tough competitor for pan-European funds business, Logue predicted. It is gearing up, he said.

"How Luxembourg reacts to its international client base is very different to how it was eight or nine years ago."