The 180 jobs at Merrill Lynch operations in the International Financial Services Centre are safe and the group intends to expand in Dublin, according to relationship manager for Ireland Mr Chris McGale.

"I can give you a categorical assurance that Dublin will not be contracted. It is not part of our plans to right-size. We are very successful in Dublin and are committed to increasing our employment there," he said.

Mr McGale was responding to questions about the outlook for Merrill's Irish operations following the US group's announcement of a global restructuring involving significant job cuts.

In a statment issued to The Irish Times this week by Merrill Lynch in London the group said:

"Throughout this year, in a deteriorating revenue environment, we've been engaged in a review of all of our businesses to make sure they are sized properly for the market opportunity. While the pace of this review is accelerating, decisions will be made business-by-business and we have no overall company-wide headcount-reduction target."

However, following a 52 per cent fall in third quarter earnings the global investment bank said it was warned that its restructuring would mean cutting its 65,900 workforce by about 10,000.

Merrill Lynch established its international capital markets operation in the IFSC five years ago and employment has increased from 100 two years ago to 180 people now. Asked about immediate plans for Dublin Mr McGale said: "We plan to increase employment. At the moment our plans are at the development stage but we are actively pursuing a strategy to increase our business by relocating specific business areas there from other areas and placing new businesses in Dublin".

He declined to be more specific "at this stage".