{"id":542301,"date":"2026-07-10T06:33:08","date_gmt":"2026-07-10T06:33:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/542301\/"},"modified":"2026-07-10T06:33:08","modified_gmt":"2026-07-10T06:33:08","slug":"why-us-multinationals-keep-choosing-ireland-its-not-just-the-tax-or-workforce-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/542301\/","title":{"rendered":"Why US multinationals keep choosing Ireland. It\u2019s not just the tax or workforce \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

If you ask US multinationals why they choose Ireland as a base for investment, they\u2019ll talk about the skilled workforce.<\/p>\n

If you ask the Government or the IDA<\/a>, they\u2019ll talk about the stable policy environment. <\/p>\n

Both groups tend to avoid the obvious answer: tax. <\/p>\n

Ireland\u2019s comparatively low rate tends to create unwanted noise in Brussels and Washington so officials play it down.<\/p>\n

But after four decades of near-continuous US investment, there\u2019s another anchoring force: clustering. Having 16 of the top 20 global tech firms here, including celebrity names such as Apple<\/a>, Microsoft<\/a> and Alphabet<\/a>, gives the IDA an ideal sales pitch.<\/p>\n

Most to the world\u2019s top pharma and medtech companies are also here. The small Cork town of Carrigtwohill plays host to five of them: AbbVie, Gilead, Merck, GE Healthcare and Stryker.<\/p>\n

In an unstable global environment, you tend to go with the tried and tested. Failing that, you go where the big guns have already beaten a path. A recent Government report on Ireland\u2019s semiconductor industry noted that \u201cIntel\u2019s presence has helped attract a cluster of suppliers, service providers and related industries, contributing to regional economic development and sectoral resilience\u201d.<\/p>\n

Success begets success.<\/p>\n

Amid the current cycle of war, inflation and tariffs, all tagged as big threats to Ireland\u2019s business model, the IDA has recorded its best three-year cycle of inward investment to date. <\/p>\n

[\u00a0US investment in Ireland: \u2018I\u2019m not sure there is a better time in Ireland\u2019s history\u2019Opens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

In 2023, the agency secured 248 investments, up 2.5 per cent on the previous year, supporting the creation of 19,000 jobs. <\/p>\n

In 2024, it won 234 projects, supporting 13,500 jobs.<\/p>\n

And last year, with Donald Trump\u2019s tariff threats dominating the news cycle, it announced record results, securing 323 foreign investments, with the potential to create 15,300 new jobs.<\/p>\n

The number of investments in 2025 was up 38 per cent on the previous year and included 78 \u201cnew-name\u201d investments, which the IDA said highlighted \u201cIreland\u2019s continued attraction for first-time investors\u201d. Some 65 per cent of the investments hail from the US. <\/p>\n

And the momentum has continued into this year, against a backdrop of war in the Middle East. In its latest half-year results, the IDA said it supported 190 investments, up 6 per cent on 2025.<\/p>\n

If inward investment was your only yardstick for assessing the global environment, you\u2019d be forgiven for thinking we\u2019re living through a very stable period for global trade, and not experiencing the biggest backlash against globalisation in half a century.<\/p>\n

Trump\u2019s second term in office began with a threat to firms: either manufacture in the US or face tariffs. This was followed by 15 per cent tariffs on most EU imports and a lower rate of US corporation tax. The heads of multinationals queued to bend the knee in Trump\u2019s court while pledging to divert more production back home. Pharma groups made pricing deals with the White House to avoid tariffs.<\/p>\n

US commerce secretary Howard Lutnick characterised Ireland\u2019s tax policy as a \u201cscam\u201d that Trump\u2019s administration would end. Everything pointed to a setback for Ireland. But there has been little or no impact on FDI here. Multinationals are merely paying lip service to Trump\u2019s Maga agenda.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhile the US has made itself more attractive \u2013 and less attractive for US groups to do things outside the US \u2013 it would be a big step to structure yourself based on current climate, or indeed any soundings about what might change in the future,\u201d Grant Thornton\u2019s Peter Vale said. <\/p>\n

\u201cYou could also argue that for a US group to expand its Irish operation, or set up something new here, notwithstanding the less-competitive tax environment here, shows how Ireland is about so much more than tax. That\u2019s something the IDA has always stressed. Tax laid the foundation but the building blocks are heavily reliant on the ecosystem and talent pool here,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Ireland\u2019s housing crisis, the high cost of energy (something Intel has repeatedly raised), and the strain on infrastructure, including the grid, stand as the biggest risks to investment here. They certainly dominate the questions posed to the IDA during the press briefings but, as long the investment keeps flowing, the agency can bat them away.<\/p>\n

[\u00a0USA 250: Legacy of US companies in Ireland enduresOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

Attesting to the increased competition for investment between countries, particularly with a more equalised tax environment, IDA Ireland chairman Feargal O\u2019Rourke noted, at the agency\u2019s recent half-year results, that many countries were \u201ctrying to eat our lunch\u201d when it came to FDI.<\/p>\n

One region that had upped its game was the Middle East and the Gulf states. But the Iran war has, according to one senior source, put the region \u201cback a decade\u201d, the implication being it could further cement Ireland\u2019s leading position.<\/p>\n

As Frederic Schneider, a senior fellow at the Middle East Council on Global Affairs, noted recently, \u201cvideos of explosions in Dubai, Doha and Manama … have pierced the Gulf\u2019s carefully cultivated image of security\u201d.<\/p>\n

The forces that see Ireland as taking an unfair share of the global investment cake are bigger than ever but they\u2019ve yet to change the dynamic.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"If you ask US multinationals why they choose Ireland as a base for investment, they\u2019ll talk about the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":308341,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[76472,9712,936,72,113,230310,50670,15000,61,60,60953,1071,156276],"class_list":["post-542301","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-economy","tag-abbvie","tag-alphabet","tag-apple","tag-business","tag-economy","tag-feargal-orourke","tag-gilead-sciences","tag-ida-ireland","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-merck","tag-microsoft","tag-stryker"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/542301","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=542301"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/542301\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/308341"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=542301"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=542301"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=542301"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}