Ireland has done extraordinarily well in attracting inward investment over many years and particularly over the past decade. In its recently-published new strategy, IDA Ireland hopes to continue this progress, aiming to attract projects over the next five years which will promise 75,000 new jobs.
In a changing world, it is an ambitious target. The announcement yesterday by Apple that it plans to spend $500 billion in the US over the next four years and crate 20,000 additional jobs is the latest signal of the response by big American companies to Donald Trump’s agenda.
The extent to which this is a change in its existing plans is debatable – analysts think it may be a modest acceleration. But the change in mood music is notable and has implications for the efforts of Ireland to hold and attract US investment. Layered on top of this is the new president’s focus on countries like Ireland with which the US has a big trade deficit in goods largely, in the Irish case, due to pharmaceutical products.
Ireland - and the EU - face diplomatic challenges here and an unpredictable period. But there is a lot, too, that is under Ireland’s control . The IDA will continue to do a professional job and its latest strategy points sensibly towards key growth areas like AI, semiconductors, healthcare and digitalisation. It plans to put considerable resources into working with companies already here.
The State must support it through the accelerated provision of key infrastructure – housing, energy and water – all of which are also essential for wider economic and social reasons. So is the move to boosting renewable energy provision which is also facing damaging delay.
Ireland has significant strengths in its existing base of major companies and must work to protect this. In the longer term, US companies will continue to need a base in the EU. And Ireland must be able to present itself as a stable location, with a plan which it is executing on green energy, research and workforce skills. Delivering on these key goals now looks more essential than ever.
