Irish private equity hiring slow off the mark

Irish private equity activity is expanding at an astronomical rate. Does that mean there are private equity vacancies in the country? Unfortunately not.

"Given the level of private equity activity in Ireland, you'd expect there to be a lot more hiring," says Ronan Colleran, a director at search firm Accreate. "Everyone wants to get into it, but it's a bit of a closed shop. The few firms there are have core teams of one or two people who are well paid and tied in."

Data from Private Equity Insight shows Irish private equity investments have expanded exponentially over the past six months. So far this year their value stands at 327m, compared to just 46m for the whole of last year.

Last week Bank of Ireland announced plans to start a joint venture with private equity specialist Paul Capital Partners to provide private equity fund of funds products to investors worldwide. Unfortunately the company will be based several thousand miles from Dublin, in San Francisco.

Prime movers on the Irish scene are instead the likes of Benchmark Capital, the Silicon Valley-based venture capitalist with an Irish contingent in the form of former Esat Digifone CEO Barry Maloney. Others include Trinity Venture Capital, a Dublin-based company which focuses on technology investments.

Colleran says Irish private equity and venture capital firms do occasionally have vacancies, but they tend to be at the junior end: "Now and then they will take on bright newly qualified ACAs who are top of their class."