EY plans jobs growth in Ireland as income jumps 12%

Consulting firm EY, which now employs almost 2,400 people in Ireland, expects headcount to continue to grow after reporting double-digit income growth for the fourth consecutive year.

EY Ireland recorded a 12 per cent rise in fee income growth from €220 million to €247 million for the 12 months to the end of June, with strong performances reported across all service lines. This compares to a 9.2 per cent rise in revenues to £2.35 billion for EY’s UK practice and a 7.8 per cent jump to $31.4 billion for its parent.

EY Ireland provide assurance, tax, audit, transaction and advisory services to a wide range of clients, and in recent years has increasingly expanded into areas such as IT forensics.

Within its advisory and consultancy practice, a 41 per cent rise in growth was recorded over the last year. Within assurance, a rise in fraud investigation, dispute services and data analytics-related work led to a 37 per cent rise in growth.

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Corporate tax was up 11 per cent as a result of increased demand in areas such as such transfer pricing.

Country managing partner Mike McKerr attributed continued income growth to investment in new technologies and service offerings.

EY Ireland, which has recorded a 38 per cent rise in employee numbers over the last two years alone, said headcount rose 14 per cent in the year to the end of September to 2,383.

"Since 2013 we've added over €100 million to our top line and created 1,000 new jobs locally. There aren't many organisations that have done anything close to that," Mr McKerr told The Irish Times.

New roles

The firm has offices in Dublin, Belfast, Cork, Waterford, Limerick and Galway, with many of the new roles being created aimed at boosting the group’s regional presence.

EY made eight additional partner appointments during the year to bring the overall number of partners it has in Ireland to 68. It also made a number of senior appointments, including naming former Ulster University professor Neil Gibson as its chief economist.

Mr McKerr said EY expected further growth locally due to increased demand from clients around issues linked to cyber security, GDPR, Solvency II and IFRS9. “The first three months of the current financial year are showing about 20 per cent growth so things seem to be accelerating for us,” he said.

Mr McKerr said the company had promoted more than 35 per cent of staff in recent years. He said this would continue, with EY likely to add further to headcount. “We’re investing heavily in office space, including facilities with bigger capacity in Cork, Dublin, Galway and Waterford.”