DUBLIN: Ireland’s finance minister has begun a week-long visit to the US to press the case for continued foreign investment amid growing concern in Dublin over the country’s economic prospects.
The Irish government has been stunned in the past few months by the UK’s referendum decision to leave the EU and a ruling from the European Commission that Apple must repay €13bn in taxes resulting from an alleged sweetheart tax deal between the technology giant and Irish authorities.
Michael Noonan’s trip has assumed added significance after Donald Trump’s election as US president, in light of signals that the incoming administration might slash corporate taxes from 35 per cent to below 20 per cent to lure home US corporations that have invested abroad.
Since Mr Trump’s victory Irish headlines have been dominated by the prospect that US companies could decamp if the US lowers corporate tax towards Ireland’s 12.5 per cent rate, one of the world’s lowest and the centrepiece of the country’s attractiveness as a location for US companies.
Some 700 US companies operate in Ireland, employing 140,000 people, while nine of the top 10 exporters from Ireland are US companies, including Microsoft and Google. Mr Noonan was due to meet US Treasury secretary Jacob Lew in Washington on Monday before heading to California for discussions with US companies that have investments in Ireland. His meetings are expected to focus on tax, Ireland’s attractions as a location for US investment and the country’s continued commitment to the EU.
Mr Noonan, whose trip was arranged after the UK vote in June to leave the EU, said he intended to emphasise Ireland’s record as a location for US companies, and insisted that they invested in Ireland for other reasons besides tax.
“As a common-law, English-speaking and business-friendly jurisdiction, we will continue to be an attractive destination for US companies,” he said.
Martin Shanahan, chief executive of IDA Ireland, the inward investment agency that has persuaded US companies such as Google and Facebook to establish their international headquarters in Dublin, said it was too early to know what the Trump administration might do. He said it was important to emphasise the stability of Ireland’s record as a location for FDI but not to take it for granted.
