Up to 80 new jobs have been announced for Dublin.

Guidewire, a software provider to the global insurance industry, says it will hire between 60 and 80 new staff this year and next.

Already employing 150 people in Dublin, it is leasing additional office space in Blanchardstown.

This will make Dublin its largest office outside of the US where it is headquartered.

The additional staff will provide consultancy support and product development resources to some of the firm's 180 customers around the world.

There are two components to the development centre and global services in Dublin: the European Development Centre (EDC) and the Guidewire Services Centre (GSC).

The company says product development has been a significant factor in the growth of the EDC this year - where its team is developing product extensions, accelerators, mobile applications and web portals.

Guidewire CEO Marcus Ryu said: "We have been very pleased with the quality of talent and output from our Dublin office, and I regard our decision to start operations in Ireland as one of the best we have made in the last several years."

"We intend to build on that success with a significant increase in our hiring plans and a deeper integration of our Dublin-based personnel into the career progression opportunities of the company, especially in Europe," he added.

Dan Lonborg is engineering director and head of the EDC - he spoke to Newstalk.com's political correspondent Páraic Gallagher: