The New Column Coming to StockNewsNow.com An excerpt from our chat with Barry O’Dowd of IDA Ireland: Let’s start with an overview of IDA Ireland. What does your organization do? IDA Ireland (Industrial Development Agency) is responsible for the attraction to and development of foreign investment in the Republic of Ireland. IDA provides a range of services and incentives, including grants that are available to those considering foreign direct investment in Ireland. In particular, it offers a free one stop shop ‘hand holding’ concierge service to its clients. Why Ireland? What are the benefits of moving to a city in Ireland? Forbes voted Ireland the number one location for business, in December 2013. Why? Because it’s an easy place to do business. Companies can register their company within a few days with the company registration office and Irish Revenue (our equivalent of the IRS). Additionally, Ireland is a very young and educated country Nearly 50% of the population (4.5m) is under 35 years of age and the average age (35 years) is the youngest in the EU. We have a large supply of educated talent as we have a free education system from elementary school right up to university level. Plus, because Ireland is a member of the EU, we have access to a large talent pool of 500 million people, visa free! In their Dublin office, Google employs over 2000 people
comprising 71 different nationalities. 75 percent of their staff has relocated from overseas to work in Ireland. Lastly, Ireland is the only English-speaking member of the Eurozone countries. Which industries whether technology, healthcare, or manufacturing would distinguish Ireland the most desirable country in the world? All of those sectors, plus financial and business services, have been successful in Ireland. For example, Ireland can boast the presence of: 8 of the top 10 ICT companies, 9 out of the 10 top pharmaceutical companies, the top 10 global “born-on-the-internet” companies (i.e. Facebook, Linkedin), a world class medtech industry cluster Many early stage technology companies are selecting Ireland as their European headquarters such as New Relic, Zendesk, Adroll, Twitter, Gilt Group. They are either using Ireland as a location for their shared services or business development activities (Hubspot, Dropbox, Qualtrics) or software development (Gilt Group, Zendesk) or customer contact centre (Viagogo, Gilt Group). Many of the operations are multilingual where Ireland offers global standard multicultural talent.
Read the full interview at StockNewsNow.com