The Government will establish a fund for specialist financial education to counter a shortage of skills in the financial sector, Taoiseach Bertie Ahern said last night. Mr Ahern also promised to set up a dedicated centre for financial skills for high-level training and research in the sector.

At the publication of a report on the sector, titled Building on Success, Mr Ahern also said that the Irish Financial Services Regulatory Authority had taken a number of steps to increase its efficiency and effectiveness.

He was "well aware" that tension between the financial regulator and the industry was inevitable but said there were a number of principles on which there could be genuine agreement.

"We are all committed to seeing cost effectiveness, responsiveness and the ability to facilitate innovation, competitiveness and growth embedded in the Irish regulatory approach," he said.

Efforts to increase efficiency included the establishment of specialist units, the streamlining of authorisation processes and the elimination of inefficient regulatory reporting, he said.

"As we all appreciate, being supportive of the industry must in no way compromise the regulator in meeting its statutory obligations to protect the interest of consumers and maintaining appropriate prudential standards. While, happily, in most instances these respective interests coincide, in some cases they may not."

Mr Ahern said a new centre for financial services skills would provide "very specific assistance" and a new dedicated research function in the financial services area. "I believe that this measure will ensure a supply of very highly qualified students, to PhD level, from Irish educational institutions. It will also create a research basis that may be capable of commercialisation by the industry itself," he said.

The fund will be used to ensure the provision of the necessary educational programmes aimed to address skills shortages and projected skills shortages in the industry.

The Irish Bankers' Federation welcomed the commitments but said a more specific timeframe for their delivery was required. It said there was potential to increase employment in the sector to 30,000 from 19,000 within five years if Government took the right action.