ONE OF THE WORLD’S largest accountancy and consultancy firms has indicated it will resume recruiting new staff in Ireland in the coming months, ending a recruitment freeze instigated at the onset of the economic crisis.

Ernst & Young, considered one of the world’s ‘Big Four’ firms, will create 300 new jobs in Ireland in the next 18 months in its offices in Dublin, Cork, Limerick, Waterford and Belfast.

The Irish Times reports that the new jobs came “in anticipation of the island of Ireland economy beginning to recover”. Jobs will be created for accountants and senior executives in the tax, assurance, advisor and transaction advisory areas.

Ernst & Young’ Ireland’s managing partner Mike McKerr said the firm was “confident of attracting outstanding new talent to help us deliver to our clients.”

Ernst & Young – along with KPMG, Deloitte and PricewaterhouseCoopers – regularly each hired hundreds of new business graduates every year, in the so-called “milk rounds“, until the onset of the economic crisis in 2008, when the numbers being hired were greatly constricted.