Ireland facing tough battle for FDI, says IDA chair
Ireland needs to be like the football club Ason Villa if it wants to attract foreign direct investment from wealthy rival countries, the head of the IDA has warned.
Rival states are offering firms large sums of money to set up within their borders, IDA Chair Feargal O'Rourke has claimed.
Speaking on RTE's Morning Ireland, he described countries such as the UAE and Saudi Arabia as being like Manchester City in soccer terms.
Mr O'Rourke suggested that Ireland needs to be like Aston Villa and "punching above our weight".
"We're also seeing countries like France and Germany put an increased emphasis on it," said Mr O'Rourke.
"There's more economic nationalism out there than there had been over the last decade, and we're seeing increased competition," he said.
He said one of the great advantages for Ireland in the face of growing international volatility was our stability across our institutions, policy, politics, and the general economy.
"In my past career, I would have gone around talking to US companies about how stable Ireland was, and they would nod at you and say, that's great, that's fine, but there's lots of other countries in the world like this," said Mr O'Rourke.
"That stability in what is a fairly turbulent world out there is really playing to our advantage now, added to the track record of companies that have been here for many years and have been very successful here, they are saying back at headquarters that Ireland works, Ireland's great for business," he said.
Almost €33bn in corporation tax was collected last year, and almost three-quarters of that was from the US.
The IDA also had a record year last year as investments into Ireland by foreign multinationals were up by 38% in 2025.
In 2024, IDA Ireland previously warned the government that competition for foreign direct investment was becoming "more intense and aggressive" in pre-Budget discussions and that Ireland's pitch for outside investment was weakened by infrastructure failings.
Mr O'Rourke said countries such as the UAE and Saudi Arabia are like Manchester City in soccer terms
The State agency for attracting FDI said that the housing shortage and the availability of energy and water were creating challenges in its efforts to secure investment from multinationals.
In a pre-Budget submission, they also said it was crucial that the tax system was seen as "clear, transparent, and [providing] certainty for investors" amid wider changes in the international tax environment.
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