Forvis Mazars has moved its 117-strong Galway team into a 16,500 sq. ft office on St Augustine Street after doubling its workforce in four years, a move that matters broadly because it signals confidence in demand for audit, tax and advisory services across the west of Ireland, and matters specifically to accountancy professionals because it shows the region’s largest firm still adding space and headcount as rivals arrive.

Forvis Mazars is an international audit, tax and advisory firm whose Irish practice is the sixth largest nationally, with more than 1,000 professionals across Dublin, Galway, Cork and Limerick. Its Galway practice opened in 2004 with ten people and is now the largest accountancy and tax advisory firm in the west of Ireland, serving clients in construction, life sciences and technology from the top floor of the Hynes Building. The Galway leadership team includes Maurice Hickey, Aisling Callanan, Austin Sammon, Emma Collins and Paul Mee.

Austin Sammon, lead partner in Galway, said the office opened with a team of ten and big ambitions, and that the move gives space to keep growing and developing the team. He said clients have grown from owner-managed businesses to international companies establishing operations, and that Galway’s mix of ambitious businesses, international investment and talent points to significant opportunities.

The client base explains the demand. Medtronic’s new Galway software hub brings 85 jobs, adding to roughly 11 billion euros it has invested in Ireland over 40 years, and each multinational site generates local audit, tax and compliance work.

The region’s profile supports that. Galway is the largest urban centre on Ireland’s western seaboard and drives regional employment, with medtech a mainstay of overseas investment, which suits a firm that serves both owner-managed and international clients.

Rivals are arriving too. HLB Ireland bought a Galway accountancy practice in August in its first deal west of the Shannon, and Moore Ireland acquired DHKN in Galway in 2025, so the city is becoming a contested market for mid-tier firms.

For the sector, a firm doubling its Galway team while competitors acquire there shows regional demand for accountancy capacity is now drawing sustained investment outside Dublin.

Source: Galway Daily / The Irish Times / IDA Ireland / Irish Examiner