Global Financial Centres Index: The latest ranking of financial centres around the world has London on top and Dublin's International financial Services Centre (IFSC) has a rank of 56 in a sample of 80 cities.

The biannual survey by consultancy Z/Yen, of 2,700 professionals, on the relative merits of centres has London followed by New York, Hong Kong and Singapore with a gap of 43 points between London in first and Singapore in fourth. There is then a gap of 31 points to Tokyo in fifth place. The top four centres have seen their ratings decline slightly. London’s ratings have fallen by more than any other centre in the top 25.

In Europe, there are 16 cities ahead of Dublin, which gets 605 points compared with London's 794, Cayman Islands 642, Dubai 671, Bangkok 600 and Moscow's 580.

Dublin had a rank of 15 in March 2007, 13 in September 2008, and 23 in September 2009.

In May 2010, John Bruton, former taoiseach, became chairman of the newly-formed financial services body, IFSC Ireland, to promote Dublin's offshore centre overseas.

It's of course a hard sell to promote Dublin during an international bailout. Nevertheless, someone with industry experience  maybe better at charming the moneymen.

We should also be aware that the Ireland Inc. fairytale may also need rejigging in less exuberant times.

GFCI Index [pdf]