The 42 winning deals in the Finance Dublin Deals of the Year Awards 2023 are announced. The deals covering transactions awarded from 239 deal nominations are awarded in six broad categories: M&A, Debt, and Equity Capital Markets, Loans & Financing, and, Financial Services, including Aviation Finance. The issue profiles each of the 42 winning deals, quoting the key players and advisers, and their roles in making each of the deals happen.

The Results Report for this year's Deals of the Year Awards starts on page 9 of this issue. It reflects an industry in robust health as right across the categories we have witnessed a year of exceptional performance - all the more impressive given the rising interest rate environment against which the deals were executed.

Aside from the Deal profiles this issue also includes cutting edge analysis of taxation developments as corporation tax developments move rapidly forward, while other tax issues also are forefront, not least the evolution of VAT in the digital economy, while compliance matters, and special legislative measures, such as the proposed development tax are in scope of the analysis of the panel members and contributors in the Irish Tax Monitor.

Sweeping and widespread developments affecting all executives and directors in financial services are on the way, and these are referenced on page 6, while, on page 4 we relate the viewpoints of key figures in the investment funds advisory sector on the possibilities created by the Government's forthcoming major review of the investment funds industry, to be led by the Department of Finance.

The 2023 edition of the Finance Dublin Yearbook, the annual print & E paper snapshot of Ireland's financial services centre - including the world's 3rd largest funds centre, the 6th largest financial services exporter, and with our updates of the significant developments in the profiles of the leading 500 financial services companies and bodies in Ireland.

The 2023 edition features new companies, legal and professional firms, representative bodies, Government, semi state, and legal bodies reflecting the broadening and deepening of the centre in the past year, its people and organisations.

The Yearbook's 2023 Review & Outlook provides Finance Dublin's annual overview of the 'state of the centre' - reflecting a year of exceptional progress as the centre deepened and strengthened, despite the headwinds caused primarily by inflation and monetary tightening in global financial and capital markets. This is covered in a series of analytical articles in the publication, featured here.

The Yearbook contains the 2023 Finance Dublin Yearbook's Professional Services Guide, with its Who's Who of advisers and practitioners in the jurisdiction.

The full E-Paper edition can be accessed by subscribers HERE. (If you need a password to access any of the above links, or need assistance to access them please email us).

Details of the 239 Nominations for the 2023 annual Finance Dublin Deals of the Year Awards 2023. The shortlisted deals provide the most comprehensive analysis of the most significant deals across the finance ecosystem in Ireland in 2022. They are the shortlisted deals for this year's Awards which will be published in the Finance Dublin Deals of the Year 2023 Special Report where each of the winning Deals will be profiled.

The Awards stories in the Report will also reflect the evolution of key aspects of the markets and finance in Ireland in 2022, proving key insights into the state of corporate finance in Ireland, including how the rising interest rate backdrop has impacted dealmaking.

Also: the state of play in global banking, following the jitters spurred by the collapse of SVB Bank, including fragility risks in certain areas, including the implementation (by the Fed) of money markets regulation; the important EU Sandbox initiative, welcomed by an Irish Central Bank Spokesman in a statement in Finance Dublin.

The cover feature this month is our interview with the new Minister of State for Financial Services Jennifer Carroll MacNeill. She sat down with the editor, Ken O'Brien, and in it she outlines an ambitious and wide ranging agenda that sees marketing of international financial services and the 'Ireland for Law' project as a top priority.

As the new year dawns, the January issue highlights the factors that indicate that the Irish financial services sector faces a potential future that is better than at any time over the past 35 years. These opportunities exist at both domestic financial services level, as detailed on page 4 of this month's issue, and for Ireland's IFS industry. The latter is the focus in the January cover feature - the UK's FS industry agenda for the City, unveiled in December 2022 by UK Chancellor Jeremy Hunt.

The Finance Dublin Yearbook 2023 (forthcoming) will detail the stories and people of the centre's big successes in the past year and provide a detailed overview of its strengths, weaknesses and opportunities, benchmarked against its competitors. The January issue previews some of those developments, such as Unicredit's return with a tie up with Azimuth that echoes its first foray into Ireland, 26 years ago with its establishment of Pioneer. SMBC's confirmation as No 2 aircraft lessor globally, by fleet size is another example.

Also in aviation leasing developments, the role of the Irish courts in insurance resolutions of the seizure of aircraft by the State of Russia shows Ireland's growing stature in commercial disputes, analysed on p7 of this month's Epaper. The 'Ireland for Law' agenda will be at the forefront of Finance Dublin's coverage again in 2023, and the implications, alongside the issues raised in January's cover feature relating to UK developments will be tracked.

Also in this month's issue: Corporation taxation, now confirmed as the biggest tax head in the 2022 Exchequer returns, saw Pillar 2 get the go-ahead in December (feature); the pulse of the economy as the new year starts, and detailed analysis of sustainable finance, and the challenges arising for Ireland in contributing creative and innovative solutions as a leading green finance centre.

The past year's trends are surveyed in our cover story. It has been a turbulent year, but also in many ways a landmark year. Those landmarks raise hopes about several features of the near term future for Ireland, business, the economy, and the financial services sector, both domestic and international.

The economic backdrop is benign. It indicates that from a growth and pure financial point of view Ireland has totally got it right. In it, we point to "a hugely significant factor, accounting for, in 2022 alone, a decline in the absolute size of the national debt of 790 basis points. This follows a 660 basis point decline in 2021, and 140 in 2020, the peak year of the pandemic". This indicates that a potentially viable and sustainable future lies ahead for the Republic of Ireland - that relatively is more attractive indeed than any other coutry in the continent of Europe as the new year dawns.

Leading edge thinking is evident through the rest of the publication, in our features, and 'This Month' articles, as well as in the December 2022 Irish Tax Monitor, where we reference the benefits of a move towards a territorial tax system, and examine latest developments on the BEPS front, including its implications for the insurance industry.

There are factors that give grounds for optimism, and in the November 2022 issue we present them not least to provide some balance to the picture as 2023 comes into view. Economic crisis has been the order of the day in Ireland's neighbouring island, and we comment on developments arising from the replacement of the British Prime Minister in our editorial this month, looking behind the headlines at two more fundamental issues that remain embedded at the heart of Irish and British politics, and economics.

These concern Brexit, and the, associated, issue of the Northern Ireland Protocol. There are ideas floated there, in regard to Brexit, down the road for Britain, and the governance of Northern Ireland, which we would commend for discussion.

Invest NI's Regional Director - Ireland, Jenny Santiago Young writes there that "the companies operating in risk and compliance in Northern Ireland are a valuable asset to Ireland. They can help the Irish funds industry meet increased regulatory requirements and continue its impressive growth and expanding remit". The investment funds industry is also prominent in other areas not least in the cutting edge contributions of the thought leaders that write in the November issue on issues at the forefront of the asset management industry's current concerns, in issue No 8 of the Finance Dublin Funds Monitor. and, for cutting edge thinking on corporate tax matters see the Roundtable in this month's: Irish Tax Monitor.