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Ireland's largest banks are either raising cash through rights issues or selling assets in order to bolster capital reserves. While the international investment banks will be vying for the lucrative advisory fees on offer, it's also music to the ears of the firms' internal corporate finance divisions.

Bank of Ireland is seeking line up a €1.9bn rights issue to bolster its balance sheet, which means around €50m (or 3% of the deal) is up for grabs in advisory fees.

The likes of Credit Suisse, Citigroup, Deutsche Bank and UBS are all likely to profit, but Bank of Ireland is also utilising IBI Corporate Finance – part of the wider BoI Group.

Similarly, as AIB looks set to sell off some of its operations outside of Ireland, it's appointed AIB Corporate Finance (alongside Morgan Stanley) to advise on sales in Poland and the US.

This in-house work is unlikely to require any recruitment in the near-term, unless activity really picks up, however. According to the Irish Times MA Tracker Survey, 134 deals totalling €3.4bn involving Irish companies took place in 2009 – the lowest level for five years.

Nonetheless, IBI, which topped the Irish investment banking league tables last year, according to figures from mergermarket, is optimistic about 2010.

Roisin Brennan, IBI Executive Chairman, said: "We expect to see further consolidation in 2010 in the face of ongoing challenging economic conditions with a cohort of ambitious Irish companies continuing to implement successful growth strategies."

Comparatively speaking, Irish corporate finance teams are very small, which means while redundancies are unlikely, recruitment is also relatively diminutive.

Robin Craig, director of financial recruiters Careers Compass, says: "There's a lot of talk of further consolidation in Ireland, but corporate finance divisions are not recruiting in anticipation of this. In fact, over the last two years teams have shrunk through natural attrition and not replacing those who leave."