Deloitte to create 638 positions across island of Ireland

Deloitte, the professional services group, is to expand its operation across the island by creating 338 new roles in the North and 100 new positions plus 200 graduate opportunities in the South.

It also intends to create 100 under-graduate roles including co-operative work place programmes and summer internships in the Republic over the coming year.

Jackie Henry, senior partner of Deloitte Belfast, said the North had been selected as the location for a major investment programme against "intense competition" from across the UK and other global sites.

Mr Henry said one of the factors in Belfast’s favour was the fact that it is now the firm’s UK centre of excellence for technology, pensions and actuarial consulting, finance and tax services.

“This expansion is part of our strategy to develop the Belfast Delivery Centre into a full-service delivery centre for our national and international client base, drawing on the excellent people coming out of our schools and colleges and serving companies from all over the world. These are high-value, quality jobs and we are delighted to have them in Northern Ireland,” Mr Henry said.

The North’s First and Deputy First Minister believe the jobs boost represents a vote of confidence in Northern Ireland as a business location.

Deloitte will receive more than £3.3 million in financial support from local government agencies towards the cost of the latest investment in the North.

Peter Robinson said: "It is testament to the quality of the Northern Ireland workforce and the confidence that Deloitte has in Northern Ireland that this internationally renowned company has decided to not only expand once, but twice here.

“It is tremendous news that this further expansion by Deloitte will increase overall employment in Deloitte Belfast across all services to over 700 by 2019.”

According to Martin McGuinness the expansion programme could be worth more than £11 million to the local economy.

“These jobs will pay above the local private sector average providing a considerable injection into the local economy and creating opportunities for experienced professionals, graduates and school leavers,” Mr McGuinness added.

Deloitte has not rissued a breakdown of how many jobs will be created for professionals or graduates in Northern Ireland but in the South it has said it will create 200 graduate positions across a number of its key business areas including including audit, internal audit, tax, corporate finance, consulting and technology in the Dublin, Cork and Limerick offices.

Graduates can start in autumn 2015 or choose to complete a postgraduate course in accounting, autumn 2016.

Brendan Jennings, managing partner, Deloitte said the company was creating opportunities for "graduates and experienced professionals alike" to be part of a vibrant and diverse organisation.

Deloitte also said it currently has 100 jobs available in the south for experienced professionals and opportunities also exist across a number of areas including audit, tax, strategy and operations, finance transformation, technology consulting, and cyber security and forensics.