Ireland’s one step ahead on tech inward investment - Nick Freer

Back in 2018, we worked on an assignment for Enterprise Ireland ahead of Ireland’s minister for business, enterprise and innovation making a trade trip to Scotland. At the time, Irish-Scottish trade exceeded £1.8 billion, up by 130 per cent over the previous five years.

As Enterprise Ireland’s UK manager wrote for this newspaper in September that year, “Scotland benefits from the commitment and ambition of Irish companies, representing the fourth largest foreign direct investor in Scotland. At time of writing, I haven’t got my hands on the latest data, but an educated guess would suggest that this growth trajectory may have slowed in no small part due to Brexit.

What is well recognised, then and now, is that Ireland has strengthened its export imprint to the extent that its internationalisation record is one of the best of any small nation.

During the Irish trade mission in 2018, one of the fixtures on the itinerary was a joint event with SSE at the energy giant’s Offshore Wind Centre of Excellence and if you’ve read this column of late, contributions by journalist Jeremy Grant and energy consultant David Scrimgeour have outlined how important and exciting related industry developments could be for our nation’s economy.

Nick Freer is the founding director of corporate communications agency the Freer Consultancy

On Thursday I flew from Edinburgh to Dublin for dinner with a client and a business reporter from one of Ireland’s top news publications. While the plan was to deliver an informal briefing on the client company’s strategy in Ireland, I was also interested to hear the journalist’s view around sentiment on the business scene, and in particular how the country’s tech sector is progressing.

On a macro level, Ireland is definitely one step ahead in terms of inward investment and associated job creation by US tech giants. Some quick desk research while waiting for my flight reveals that Ireland was the number one choice for US tech groups in terms of foreign direct investment in 2021, and nine of the US’s top ten technology companies now have bases there.

While IBM was the first US tech company to invest in Ireland, in 1956, a slew of others have set up shop since, lured more recently by a 12.5 per cent corporate tax rate, an educated workforce, EU membership and easy access to European markets. However, we know that so-called FAANG stocks have lost their bite in recent times, and tech sector layoffs have hit Ireland like everywhere else on the planet.

Importantly, I did some desk research on the best place for a pint of Guinness in the vicinity of St Stephen’s Green in Dublin’s Southside. In a hastily organised straw poll, O’Donohue’s and Kehoe’s came top of the pile.

Lunchtime in the business and financial sector of Dublin city centre. Ireland’s internationalisation record is one of the best of any small nation

Scottish EDGE

A fortnight ago, and closer to home, I was lucky enough to attend Scottish EDGE’s awards ceremony at RBS Gogarburn as my youngest brother’s company, Infix Support, scooped one of the top prizes.

With hosting duties carried out by EDGE’s CEO Evelyn McDonald, and inspirational talks from entrepreneur Sir Tom Hunter and ACTIPH Water founder Jamie Douglas-Hamilton, it was a proud moment to see my brother (Dr Matthew Freer) receive his award from First Minister Humza Yousaf on the night.

​Nick Freer is the founding director of corporate communications agency the Freer Consultancy