Qualla: International Financial Services Centre, Dublin

International Financial Services Centre, Dublin: Introduction

Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Peter coyne, CC BY-SA 4.0. In 1987, Charles Haughey returned to power in Ireland with a manifesto pledge that almost nobody outside Dublin's small financial set understood: he was going to build an international financial services centre on eleven hectares of empty, weed-grown dockland on the north bank of the Liffey, and tax it at a special rate of ten percent. The Department of Finance objected. The EU wavered, then nodded. The first three offices went up - The International Centre, IFSC House, La Touche House, all faced in distinctive green panelling. Today that experiment occupies thirty-eight hectares of the Dublin Docklands, hosts the European headquarters of the world's largest banks, custodies more than three trillion euros, and produces about seven percent of Irish GDP.

Image: Peter coyne | CC BY-SA 4.0

International Financial Services Centre, Dublin: Idea Before Architecture

Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit William Murphy from Dublin, Ireland, CC BY-SA 2.0. Two Irishmen are usually credited with first articulating the idea: the financier Dermot Desmond and the Labour politician Ruairi Quinn. They were not in power and could not implement it. But Fianna Fail leader Charles Haughey, returning to government in 1987 with input from AIB ...

Image: William Murphy from Dublin, Ireland | CC BY-SA 2.0

International Financial Services Centre, Dublin: From Custom House Quay to Spencer Dock

Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Dublinprojekt, CC BY-SA 4.0. The original site was the reclaimed North Wall and George's Dock area - state-owned land that had been the working port of Dublin and was, by the mid-1980s, derelict and embarrassing. Construction began with the three green-panelled office blocks; then came a long sequence of exp...

Image: Dublinprojekt | CC BY-SA 4.0

International Financial Services Centre, Dublin: Aircraft Leasing on the Liffey

Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Spleodrach, CC BY-SA 4.0. Few visitors to Dublin realise that the aircraft leasing capital of the world looks out over the Liffey. AerCap, Avolon, GECAS, SMBC Aviation Capital - the largest aircraft lessors on the planet have major offices in the IFSC. As of 2019, the sector held 141 billion euros in Iris...

Image: Spleodrach | CC BY-SA 4.0

International Financial Services Centre, Dublin: Double Irish, Section 110, Tax Storms

Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Cograng, CC BY-SA 4.0. The IFSC has been controversial almost from the beginning. The 1997 Taxes Consolidation Act created the Irish Section 110 Special Purpose Vehicle, which PwC has called "the heart of the Irish structured finance regime" and which made Ireland the fourth largest shadow banking cent...

Image: Cograng | CC BY-SA 4.0

International Financial Services Centre, Dublin: Crashes and Comebacks

Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Dwmalone, CC BY-SA 4.0. Dublin's ranking on the Global Financial Centres Index tells the story in shorthand. The IFSC reached its high point at ninth globally in March 2009 - just before the Irish financial crisis caught up with it. By September of the same year it had dropped to twenty-third, and a for...

Image: Dwmalone | CC BY-SA 4.0