All this advisory work, and no one in Ireland to take advantage of it

One of the upsides of all the restructuring and capital raising within the Irish banking sector is the lucrative advisory fees on offer, which could potentially spur a raft of front office hiring within the local corporate finance firms.

Unfortunately, though, the benefits of this are largely being felt overseas.

In the last week alone, it's emerged that Bank of Ireland's €5.2bn capital raising will cost the company €115m in advisory fees and €250m will be spent on fees for banks' recapitalisation initiatives.

Local players Davy and ICI are feeling some benefit, but international behemoths UBS, Credit Suisse and Deutsche Bank are also working with Ireland's banks.

Really, though, the latest moves are the tip of the Iceberg when it comes to potential advisory fees in Ireland. Goldman Sachs has worked with NAMA on it's dealings with Anglo; London-based boutique investment bank Hawkpoint has advised on Anglo's restructuring and small advisory firm Ondra Partners has helped with AIB's shake-up alongside PwC.

Ireland's financial sector isn't renowned for a plentiful supply of investment banking talent, but it's slightly surprising that international firms have been used so widely - particularly as domestic firms were utilised in early 2010.

One senior corporate financier in Ireland tells us: "It's not that firms in Ireland don't have the intellectual capacity to work on these deals, but they simply don't have the resources in-house to deal with the volume of work coming out of the Irish banking sector."

Surely, then, there's an opportunity to recruit people? Not really, suggests the corporate financier: "It's not just about getting bums on seats; there's not a great deal of top talent locally and the recruitment process could take months. The work needs to be done urgently."

Shay Dalton, managing director at Lincoln Search & Selection, says it's also partly down to restoring trust in Ireland's banking system.

"Ireland's banks want to distance themselves from the cronyism they've become associated with in the past, and employing large international investment banks makes a big statement of intent," he says.