Never recognised in the past for our financial acumen (despite having provided many of the leading figures in financial services in London), suddenly Ireland was a hub for the funds industry, which provided an appropriate alternative to our burgeoning IT and pharmaceutical economies.

Following the 1987 legislation that led to the creation of the IFSC, it took only three years for AIB to occupy the first building to be built on the 11 hectare site. But with this new departure came a promise of quality careers for financial graduates, whereas in the past, the hotshots would have had to emigrate. Of course, this sort of economic emigration was of a different nature to the exodus of lower skilled workers to the larger economies of the UK and the US, but it also contributed to a brain drain in the financial sector which, in itself, stunted the financial ambitions of the nation.

One man who stayed true to the Irish financial market was Dermot Desmond (despite a short sojourn in Afghanistan), who is credited with being the driving force behind the IFSC (and whose NCB stockbrokers transformed the stock brokering business in Ireland).

Desmond has amassed a fortune through his various investments and enterprises (notably London City Airport), but, lest people begrudge a man his wealth, it must be remembered that thousands of high-paying jobs in Ireland owe their existence, to a large extent, to Dermot Desmond.

But, in addition to IFSC jobs, the whole financial services industry has been growing in Ireland for almost two decades.

Niche markets have been flowering . . . for example, financial service boutique companies have been set up to service the needs of Irish business. Take mergers and acquisitions . . . in the past, corporate finance tended to be handled by larger firms, but over the past few years, smaller corporate finance boutiques have cropping up (with extensive experience among the principals of the companies) to provide an alternative to the bigger institutions. It is the same situation for wealth management companies, where smaller companies are finding a very receptive audience among the new millionaires of Ireland.

But where are the top jobs being found in financial services? Caroline Fitzsimons is on the financial services desk with Irish executive search and selection specialist Dalriada, and she has noticed a trend for executive search to be used further down the value chain in financial services - such is the scarcity of experienced candidates.

"The industry has grown so quickly in Ireland, and while there are large numbers of graduates entering the market, companies are really looking for people with experience, " she said. "Companies are taking on graduates, and as more people are coming into the markets, their experience is growing. But this is taking time to happen, so companies are still having to use search as a method to find experienced people now."

According to Fitzsimons, there is particularly strong demand for candidates across areas such as corporate banking, lending and fund services.

But compliance is another area where suitable candidates have to be sourced . . . mainly because the area is so new to Irish financial companies, having really only been introduced two years ago.

"Compliance is still an area which is very strong for us, especially at a more senior level, " she said. "Because it was so new only two years ago, people with experience are hard to come by, and we are only coming to the stage not where people have the knowledge to take up the more senior roles. Like a couple of years ago, we are still bringing in people from the UK, because compliance was introduced to the UK market before it was in Ireland."