Insurance giant Zurich set to bring Irish workforce over 1,000 mark

INSURANCE giant Zurich is set to boost its Irish workforce to over 1,000 by the end of this year.

The company – formerly trading as Eagle Star – currently employs about 500 people in Ireland, but is in the midst of a two-year recruitment drive which will see 240 extra jobs come on board.

Half of those positions have already been filled via the establishment of a new business centre in Wexford.

The rest of the new jobs – which will bring Zurich Ireland’s total workforce to 1,100 – will be filled by the end of this year.

They will cover two of the company’s main Dublin-based European centres – in Blackrock and the International Financial Services Centre (IFSC). Earlier this year, Zurich announced that it was moving the management of the majority of its EU general insurance portfolio to Ireland.

It has also been reported that Zurich is planning to move its €42 billion British life assurance business to Dublin, in a bid to lower its tax bill.

Commenting on the new jobs drive, Zurich Financial Service’s chief executive for Western Europe Markus Hongler said that Ireland was selected due to the country’s long-standing membership of the EU, its membership of the eurozone and its well-developed insurance market with “a highly educated and skilled workforce”.

Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Innovation Batt O’Keeffe added that the move, on Zurich’s part, “reaffirms the Government’s confidence in our ability to recover from recession”.

He added that it was “a strong endorsement of our highly educated and flexible workforce in the financial services sector” and said that it demonstrated Zurich’s commitment to growth in Ireland.