Building global from an Irish foundation Building global from an Irish foundation

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Ireland’s dynamic foreign direct investment (FDI) performance at the start of 2025 is a signal that investors trust it as a firm base for expansion into global markets in uncertain economic times.

Disclaimer: The Reuters news staff had no role in the production of this content. It was created by Reuters Plus, the brand marketing studio of Reuters. To work with Reuters Plus, contact us here.

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Building global from an Irish foundation

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The 179 FDI investments approved in the six months to June 2025 represented a 37% increase on the same period in 2024. Investment was especially strong in future-facing areas, such as research and development, digitisation and sustainability, reflecting Ireland’s growing global reputation as a strategic hub for technological innovation.

Stability and support More than 1,800 international businesses have set up in Ireland, which is being seen as the ideal gateway location for growth into European markets. Research by Frontline Ventures, a venture capital firm, identified Ireland’s capital Dublin as one of the three preferred cities chosen by international companies for their European headquarters. It found that 86% of companies chose either the UK or Ireland as their landing location in Europe. Since the UK’s departure from the European Union following Brexit, Ireland is the leading English-speaking member state in the EU, a €15.8 trillion GDP market comprising 449 million consumers. Ireland has been part of the EU for 52 years. Visa-free access to the union’s 220 million workers has helped Irish employers assemble a diverse workforce representing 200 nationalities. Ireland has the second-youngest population in Europe and an education system configured to produce a high-skilled talent funnel to meet the needs of a technology-driven business ecosystem. Ireland’s rate of completion of tertiary education (65.2%) is far above the EU average (44.1%). Global companies find that a philosophy of stability and support is present in Ireland’s regulatory environment, which bonds clear and consistent guardrails to the government’s commitment to an open and competitive economy. Trust in Ireland’s economic outlook since the 2008 global crash is reflected in an expanding financial services sector. Ireland is now the third largest fund domicile in the world and the fastest-growing in Europe.

People and place People and place are major pull factors in attracting international companies to Ireland and ensuring they remain for the long-term. Sony Interactive Entertainment, a subsidiary of the Tokyo-based conglomerate Sony Group, arrived in Ireland this year with plans to hire 100 employees in Dublin. Astellas, a global Japanese pharmaceuticals company, began its Irish operations 35 years ago. This year it increased its commitment to Ireland as a strategic hub for its global manufacturing and R&D activities by announcing investments worth €129 million over three years. Ireland has built regional clusters of world-renowned expertise, including a medtech belt reaching from Galway to Limerick, and a cybersecurity cluster around Cork. Tokyo-headquartered Trend Micro, one of the world’s largest cybersecurity companies, runs its European operations from Cork where it first bought a greenfield site in 2003. Today it employs 300 people. Ireland is the only European location to enjoy immigration pre-clearance to the United States and is home to 13 of the top 20 global tech companies. Google, Meta and LinkedIn have their European HQs in Dublin. The world’s largest job site, Indeed, which is part of Japan’s Recruit Holdings, is among companies based in the city’s Silicon Docks tech hub.

Ecosystem and environment When global companies invest in Ireland they are joining an ecosystem and environment that is self-sustaining and primed for innovation. World-class universities and publicly-funded research institutions partner with business to invent technological breakthroughs and bring them to scale. Ireland is a powerhouse in the pharmaceutical sector, where it has an exemplary compliance record with regulatory agencies such as Food and Drug Administration in the US. SK biotek, a South Korean pharma giant, began operating from Ireland in 2018, when the company described Ireland as being “at the forefront of global pharmaceutical manufacturing excellence”. By locating European HQs in Ireland, global companies can comply with Europe’s data protection regulations from a single Irish location and work to an aligned regulatory system within the EU. This year IDA Ireland launched a new five-year FDI strategy, Adapt Intelligently, with the stated aims of increasing long-term investment, driving sustainable change, scaling cutting-edge innovation and maximising Ireland’s regional opportunity. It identified “growth drivers” in the fields of digitalisation and artificial intelligence (AI), semiconductors, sustainability and health. These sectors have all benefitted from recent injections of FDI. The rules of global trade are in flux and the era of free trade is under pressure from protectionism. Yet multinational companies at the forefront of multiple sectors continue to select Ireland as the location for their push into European markets. This, says IDA Ireland CEO Michael Lohan, is a consequence of Ireland’s track record as a “proven investment location” and its lasting achievement in building a “stable, pro-enterprise business landscape.”

IRELAND'S INNOVATION ECHOSYSTEM

Government

Academia

K-NIBRT South Korea

NIBRT

University College Dublin

JAPAN-IRELAND BUSINESS RELATIONS

1973

Embassy of Japan opens

8000

Employees

Japaneese companies present in Ireland

County Kerry

Gallway

Dublin

Something about Ireland's Global Business Connections

Asian Investment in Ireland

Talent & Workforce

Ireland has the highest number of STEM graduates per capita in the EU, among 20-29 year olds

leading global biopharmaceutical companies

13 out of 15

FDI Investments

For companies to continue to invest internationally, they need locations like Ireland that are proven, trusted and strong partners

— Michael Lohan, CEO at IDA Ireland

Ireland ranks 1st globally for attracting and retaining talent

973

separate FDI investments

Ireland’s FDI success is the long-term product of its resilient business environment. It has grown investor confidence through its stable economy, long-standing membership of the European Union (EU), and extensive government support for international business, including competitive taxes and incentives. This strategy has helped Ireland withstand recent global economic headwinds. “We focus on what we can control,” the Irish finance minister Paschal Donohoe told a Dublin conference in June. “We can’t influence what’s going to happen with global trade, but we can influence how competitive our economy is.” The new FDI investment will create 10,000 Irish jobs. “In a turbulent world, stability now stands out as a very attractive feature and, I have no doubt, has contributed to the positive place we find ourselves in,” said Feargal O’Rourke, chairperson of IDA Ireland, Ireland’s inward investment agency.

50%

of IDA Ireland clients have been here for 10+ years

33%

of clients have been in Ireland for over 20 years

77,000

new Irish jobs from post-pandemic strategy between 2021-2024

€15.8

trillion GDP

449m

European consumers

The European market

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