The first business people to avail of the passports-for-investment scheme were Hong Kong investors in a clothing factory in Coolock, Dublin. Shamrock Apparel was established in 1984 as an IDA-assisted project by the Hong Kong-based fashion design group, Fang Brothers Knitters. Its role was to export high quality knitwear clothing to the US market, on an order basis from the parent company, as a means of circumventing quotas imposed on Asian countries. The original intention was to create more than 1,000 jobs, with a plant also planned for Artane. However this was scaled down and 500 people were employed in sewing knitwear garments in what is believed to have been a £20 million investment.
Passports under the controversial scheme were issued to Chinese and Hong Kong nationals involved with Fang Brothers in December, 1988.
Subsequently, Shamrock Apparel ran into increasing difficulties as the dollar appreciated against the pound and it faced a generally contracting market. It went into liquidation last September with estimated losses of £15 million and the loss of the jobs of the remaining 91 workers.
Outside Hong Kong, Fang Brothers has a sweater and shirt manufacturing plant in Samutprakarn, Thailand.