There is a growing need to obtain financial personnel qualified in asset-management because of the threat of a "seepage" of assets, the Taoiseach, Mr Ahern, said.
He told the Dáil yesterday that about €262 billion worth of assets are currently under management at the International Financial Services Centre, including more than €80 billion of Irish residents' assets.
Mr Ahern also said that he hoped the UK would join the euro, but if it did not "Ireland will get quite an amount of work because of the increase in euro-dominated work here."
He warned, however, that the asset-management industry here was faced with the threat of seepage of assets, and that was why it was important to obtain the staff to manage such assets.
There were now 91 qualified and certified financial analysts operating in the Irish market, a large increase on the numbers last year.
In the last academic year 289 students had sat exams to qualify in this area, and a similar number was expected to do so next year.
"It should be remembered that developments in this area began because there were not enough suitably qualified people in this country to work in it, and we were obliged to bring in people and services from outside," Mr Ahern said.
He was responding to the Fine Gael leader, Mr Enda Kenny, who asked about the role of the asset-management task force since its report was published in 2002.
He said the task force was working to increase the number of chartered financial analysts in Ireland as a means of attracting further assets for management.
Mr Ahern said pension funds were extremely lucrative, and there was a significant Bill before the House which was designed to attract more business in this area.
