Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

We are constantly talking to multinational companies both at home and abroad. That is why I have been to the US twice this year. We went early in the year to try to get a handle on what is happening in the technology sector globally where we had seen quite a number of large tech-based multinationals in Ireland make decisions globally to reduce headcount and that, of course, has had an impact on Ireland.

More recently I have been to the east coast of America, to New York, New Jersey and Massachusetts, which had a big focus in respect of healthcare, med-tech and pharma. In the autumn, we will continue this and will be going to Chicago and other parts of the US as well.

Two weeks ago, I was in Germany and France meeting companies like Merck KGaA, for example, which have big investments and employ very large numbers of people in Ireland. We will continue to focus on ensuring that the Irish proposition remains competitive, robust and in tune with global trends because we are the most globalised economy in the European Union by some margin. Trends which happen outside of Ireland have an impact on the economy here, which is why we need to be so flexible in how we change to maintain competitiveness into the future.

Currently the formula is working and that is why we are seeing such a strong corporate tax take in Ireland and such strong employment numbers at the moment.

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