Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Wednesday, 26 January 2022

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation

Strategy, Targets, Achievements and Future Progress: IDA Ireland

Photo of Richard BrutonRichard Bruton (Dublin Bay North, Fine Gael)
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I would not like people listening to get the impression that we all see multinational companies in the way they have been portrayed by some speakers - as though they are secretive, trying to wreck our power system, undermine small businesses and so on. That is a false portrayal of the contribution multinational companies are making to our development.

Will Mr. Shanahan give us an idea of the stickability of multinational investment in Ireland? I see that 58% of IDA Ireland projects last year were from its existing companies and that the rate of job loss was under 4%. Am I correct in viewing that as an indication of very strong commitment to Ireland by these companies? On the corporate tax contribution from multinational companies, what is IDA Ireland's current estimate of these companies to the Irish Exchequer?

On remote working, Mr. Curran spoke about standards being established in the various connected hubs and employers being able to know what they offer. In IDA Ireland's experience, are there significant obstacles to large multinational companies using these smaller hubs or are they close to what would be required by a multinational? As a corollary of that, will there be a time when Irish multinational companies have their employee workforce based outside of Ireland? How does that factor into IDA Ireland's thinking on this issue?