A report in the Sunday Times has claimed that large Bermuda reinsurers are relocating to Dublin ? and moving thousands of jobs to the area.

But no one in Bermuda appears to know anything about any insurers, large or small, that are leaving Bermuda in favour of the Emerald Isle at the moment.

In an article headlined ?Big Bermudian reinsurers are lured to IFSC? last Sunday, reporter Jane Suiter said that the Industrial Development Agency (IDA) Ireland ?has convinced some of the world?s biggest reinsurance companies to relocate their headquarters from Bermuda to Dublin?s International Financial Services Centre in a move that will lead to the creation of several thousand jobs?.

Last summer, before the general election, some insurance companies in Bermuda were making noises about Dublin after discontent about work permit policies reached fever pitch among the international business community.

In July IDA Ireland told The Royal Gazette that it had been in talks with ?a number of Bermudian companies? but would not reveal their names or the number of businesses involved.

At the time the business community on the Island was buzzing with talk of what contingency plans companies have in place if the six-year term limits for staff were kept in place by Government ? and Dublin came up time and time again.

But since then the Government has softened its stance on work permits, the sable rattling stopped, and business has gone back to normal.

Bob Steinhoff, chairman of the Insurance Advisory Committee, backed up this view and said he knew of no insurance companies, large or small, that were leaving Bermuda in favour of any other jurisdiction, let alone Dublin.

?Bermuda companies have used entities in Ireland for a number of years for access to the European market and for outsourcing back office,? said Mr. Steinhoff. ?I am not aware of any leading (or not leading) Bermuda insurance companies moving to Ireland.?

He added that Minister of Labour and Home Affairs Randy Horton had put out new guidelines on work permits which allow Bermuda companies to retain senior and key staff indefinitely.

But Opposition Leader Grant Gibbons attacked Government saying they were making Bermuda a less competitive place to do business.

?High prices drove tourists away from Bermuda ? we run the same risk with international companies by increasing their cost of doing business here,? he said. ?When tourism declined, we had international business to fall back on. After five years of PLP government, we have nothing to back up international business.?

Dr. Gibbons said that international companies were not coming to Bermuda like they used to and in spite of the addition of a few highly capitalised reinsurance companies in the aftermath of 9/11, the total number of new exempt-company registrations has declined every year for the last three years and is now 50 percent below what it was in 2000. ?This year?s tax and fee increases will make Bermuda even less competitive by raising the cost of doing business here,? he added.

But Mr. Steinhoff said that Bermuda was still a popular business centre. ?New incorporations for insurance companies and new incorporations this year to date remains consistent with previous years.?

The Sunday Times article quotes David Hannah, head of financial services at the IDA, as saying many of the firms planning the move see the prospect of direct access to the EU as very attractive. ?It is also far easier to add to headcount here and we make life easier for senior executives,? said Mr. Hannah in the article. ?There is also business continuity; in Bermuda it is subject to extremes of weather and so on.?

But when contacted by The Royal Gazette, the IDA said that Mr. Hannah was out of the office all week, and no one else could help with the matter.

The article said that the IDA was refusing to name the companies, but ?it is understood some of them already have offices in Ireland?.

The article also said that the development agency is also planning to visit Bermuda in June to ?woo? additional candidates as well as firm up the deals it has already done.

The report said that some of the world?s largest reinsurers have headquarters in Bermuda and named Ace, Everest Re, Renaissance Re, Max Re, Awac and Axis. ?Most of the expected new jobs will be in treasury management, intellectual property management and pension asset management,? said the Sunday Times report.

?Ireland is a low tax onshore environment with low tax agreed by the EU and a double tax agreement with the US,? said Mr. Hannah in the article. Describing Bermuda?s difficulty as Ireland?s opportunity, Pat Wall, tax partner at PricewaterhouseCoopers, said long-standing offshore centres had been coming under pressure as regulators, tax authorities and the OECD crack down on money laundering and tax evasion, said the article. And it quoted Mr. Wall as saying: ?There are a number of projects in the pipeline. They are simply waiting for formal EU approval of the new regime.?

When Mr. Wall?s office in Dublin was contacted by The Royal Gazette this week, it was told that Mr. Wall was out of the office and they were unable to contact him.

In the article Mr. Wall said insurance premiums had risen dramatically after 9/11 and the market had hardened as a result and that many American companies have their headquarters in Bermuda but are facing intense scrutiny from the US authorities. ?While there is no question mark over or issues surrounding any of the companies targeted by the IDA, the fact that they are based in locations that are now out of favour is not considered advantageous,? said the article.

?These are very well-run companies but they are finding it more and more difficult to do business offshore,? said Mr. Wall in the report, adding that changes in taxation rules globally would continue to be positive for the IFSC. ?The benefit is in jobs and moving our offering further up the value chain,? he said.