![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/001f172a-614.jpg\"\/)
<\/p>\nIreland must work ever harder to win foreign investment in a fractured global economy where it has little ability to influence major events, an internal IDA Ireland briefing said.<\/p>\n
The briefing for IDA CEO Michael Lohan warned Ireland was a small country and “not even a middle power” with limited ability to shape global trade or investment.<\/p>\n
It said the country needed to keep its focus on things it could control including competitiveness, infrastructure, regulation, skills, and incentives.<\/p>\n
The briefing was prepared ahead of a trade summit event in March and said companies in the new era of global trade would seek out “capacity, stability, capability, and cost.”<\/p>\n
It said Ireland needed to adapt but was well-positioned to thrive in what was described as a “post-globalisation world.”<\/p>\n
The document warned that competition between countries was intensifying but that there were specific opportunities given the existing manufacturing base in semiconductors and life sciences.<\/p>\n
Mr Lohan’s briefing said the year had started with hope that “things were beginning to steady” but the crisis in the Middle East had turned that on its head.<\/p>\n
“As a small country, not even a middle power in [Canadian Prime Minister] Mark Carney’s terms there is only so much we can do to influence the broad brush of global events,” the IDA CEO said.<\/p>\n
The document said the emphasis needed to be on “controlling the controllables”, especially around providing better infrastructure.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Mr Lohan was also briefed on Ireland’s forthcoming EU Council Presidency, which was a “huge opportunity” to help shape policy across the Union.<\/p>\n
Background material provided to the IDA CEO said “uncertainty and volatility” were becoming the norm.<\/p>\n
“The global race to protect existing industries and secure a foothold in future growth drivers has seen trade and investment policy become more deeply intertwined with geopolitics, sustainability, and innovation,” it added.<\/p>\n
The briefing material also said there had been 2,500 trade restrictions imposed in the first ten months of last year, five times higher than the equivalent figure from 2015.<\/p>\n
“The Trump Administration’s tariff policies have resulted in the effective US tariff rate increasing from 2.3% in January 2025 to 10.3% in January 2026,” it explained.<\/p>\n
It said Ireland’s openness left the country more exposed to global trends, “both positive and negative.”<\/p>\n
The briefing said the Government’s 85-point Action Plan on competitiveness and productivity had several areas that were of particular interest to the IDA.<\/p>\n
This included speeding up infrastructure delivery and “smarter, simpler, more streamlined” regulatory systems.<\/p>\n
“Simplification is about better regulation, not deregulation. The regulatory certainty offered by Ireland and Europe can be a key strength for the continent as a place to innovate and do business,” it said.<\/p>\n
Reporting by Ken Foxe<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ireland must work ever harder to win foreign investment in a fractured global economy where it has little…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":598339,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[84,1294,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-598338","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-economy","tag-business","tag-economy","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/598338","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=598338"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/598338\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/598339"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=598338"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=598338"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=598338"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}