Mr. Feargal O'Rourke:

It is very interesting. I will take almost either extreme. I think we have 40 companies from China operating in Ireland, as against 600 companies from the US. There is no denying that when it comes to inward investment the United States is the 800 lb gorilla, and will continue to be into the foreseeable future. When we look at large global companies, many tend to be headquartered in the US. As a result, the US will always be our number one priority market for where we focus our resources. Having said that, there has been a move by successive Governments to enhance our focus on Asia. Investing in Japan, China and the emerging markets will continue to attract more of our resources going forward.

In my experience, during most of the 37 years before coming here, I was in rooms with clients when they were deciding where they would locate, primarily but not exclusively in the United States, and the things they look for are pretty common. They include our access to the Single Market, and the fact that we have available talent coming from third level, from apprenticeships or, as we welcome people in, from abroad.

These are common whether people are coming from China, Japan or the USA. They want to have a pro-business society and economy that welcome inward investment and where there is this attractiveness and access to the Single Market. We will, therefore, continue to focus heavily on the US but also recognise there is a world beyond it that we need to continue to tap.