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A very random and uninformed guess - A lot of tech companies have opened up offices in Ireland (ostensibly due to tax laws) and have started to attract young,

A very random and uninformed guess - A lot of tech companies have opened up offices in Ireland (ostensibly due to tax laws) and have started to attract young, progressive talent into the country. This investment has helped the economy and raised the standard of living in Ireland, so less people are concerned with enforcing conservative/religion-based regulation. This article has some better stats/anecdotes: http://www.npr.org/sections/parallels/2014/12/08/368770530/u-s-tech-firms-see-green-as-they-set-up-shop-in-low-tax-ireland http://www.npr.org/sections/parallels/2014/12/08/368770530/u...

comrh 11y ago
I don't know if you can give the credit to tech companies, but Ireland is keeping more of it young people in the country after a decade of emmigration and brain drain. Their more progressive attitudes probably have something to do with it.
lucideer 11y ago
I'd really love if this were the case, but sadly it really isn't. The affect of US tech companies coming here has largely been a small-scale version of Palo Alto-esque gentrification of a small area of Dublin (docklands) and any improvements in standard of living being limited to a small white male tech elite. Overall poverty is up (we're dealing with a very serious recent homelessness crisis) and average standards of living have dropped significantly in the country otherwise and reported economic improvements in world news are typical of our conservative government's focus on primarily export-based GDP figures, etc. over actual progressive population-based data. I think on the other hand, politics aside, there is a definite strong movement away from the church at least, which I think is largely a lingering result of the various very public abuse scandals over the past few decades. Edit: That NPR article is interesting in its focus on Cork. I live in Dublin, so I can't really comment much anecdotally on Cork, but with the exception of Apple, almost all major US tech firms that have HQ-ed here (Google, Facebook, MS, Twitter, etc.) are Dublin-based, so it seems an unusual focus in that regard.
- roymurdock 11y ago
  Thanks for the inside perspective - hard to get a real sense of how a country is doing from GDP/economic indicators. Wishful thinking on my part that tech wealth would trickle down more effectively in Ireland than in the US. On the homelessness crisis: Amazing that housing prices in Dublin have jumped up 22.3% YoY. [1] What else do you see contributing to the rise in poverty/homelessness and the decline in living standards in Ireland? [1] http://www.globalpropertyguide.com/Europe/Ireland/Price-History http://www.globalpropertyguide.com/Europe/Ireland/Price-Hist...
  - gearoidoc 11y ago
    Dublin is a different animal than the rest of Ireland because the country is very centralised there (despite some efforts to combat this). It would like measuring the average house price in the US by just measuring the BA. I can buy a house in my hometown which is well serviced by schools and more than the essentials for about €150k. The one thing that Ireland gets right is access to 3rd level education. I'm constantly floored by the amount of debt that students in North American and UK (or wherever else) pile up getting educated. I will concede that their standard of education is probably higher but, personal experience, I see very little difference in the average standard of graduate produced. Coming from a working class background, I was lucky enough to be on the grant system so would have received about €3.5k a year to attend college - it wasn't huge and I obviously had to work part time but it certainly helped. Anyway, the point I'm trying to arrive at is that the best way for a society to progress is via education and I think we're doing good (though it could be much better) at this right now.
    - maccard 11y ago
      Despite there not being any fees in IrelNd, you have to pay a student contribution fee (which as a grant receiver you were exempt from) which is currently 3.5k/year and set to continue rising. Really the grant gives you more like 7k/yr as you don't have to pay that fee (which had to be paid up front in one lump sun)
  - rmc 11y ago
bcoughlan 11y ago
If anything there has been a net emigration of young people here in the past few years due to the global economic crisis. We have had multi-national technology companies in Ireland for a long time, so it's not that. Ireland lived under the thumb of the church until the 80s. They dictated the morals of the nation, and when their corruption and hypocrisy was exposed it became OK to speak out against them without being ostracized. Condoms were legalized in 1978, without prescription in 1985. Homosexuality in 1993. Divorce in 1995. We transitioned from one of the most conservative countries in the West to one of the most liberal in a remarkably short time. The gay marriage referendum was primarily seen as younger generation issues, but I was pleased to see that the older generations showed their support in the end - the general attitude was "It's not harming anyone, so why should I stand in their way". Our government, however, would never be the first to make bold reforms in drug laws. We have the United States, Portugal, the Netherlands and Spain to thank for the progress made. Some former ministers responsible for drugs have come out in support of treating it as a health instead of a criminal issue AFTER they left office. Anyways I think that this is just an election ploy for the youth vote. Here is what the current Taoiseach (prime minister) had to say about legalising cannabis on the Youtube Digital Debate Q&A at the last election: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V6k9sohbulg https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V6k9sohbulg (the typical answer to a question was about a minute).
lucaspiller 11y ago
Unless you are Google size the tax laws don't really make any difference, even then you only need to have a company registered there, you don't need an office full of techies. Dublin is good for tech companies as it's easy to do business and get investment, English is the main language, there is good internet [0], you can quickly get to central Europe (thanks Ryanair), and compared to London the cost of living is a lot lower. It's just a shame about the weather... [0] Unless you are stuck in a building only served by Eircom.

comrh 11y ago

I don't know if you can give the credit to tech companies, but Ireland is keeping more of it young people in the country after a decade of emmigration and brain drain. Their more progressive attitudes probably have something to do with it.

lucideer 11y ago

I'd really love if this were the case, but sadly it really isn't. The affect of US tech companies coming here has largely been a small-scale version of Palo Alto-esque gentrification of a small area of Dublin (docklands) and any improvements in standard of living being limited to a small white male tech elite. Overall poverty is up (we're dealing with a very serious recent homelessness crisis) and average standards of living have dropped significantly in the country otherwise and reported economic improvements in world news are typical of our conservative government's focus on primarily export-based GDP figures, etc. over actual progressive population-based data. I think on the other hand, politics aside, there is a definite strong movement away from the church at least, which I think is largely a lingering result of the various very public abuse scandals over the past few decades. Edit: That NPR article is interesting in its focus on Cork. I live in Dublin, so I can't really comment much anecdotally on Cork, but with the exception of Apple, almost all major US tech firms that have HQ-ed here (Google, Facebook, MS, Twitter, etc.) are Dublin-based, so it seems an unusual focus in that regard.

roymurdock 11y ago
Thanks for the inside perspective - hard to get a real sense of how a country is doing from GDP/economic indicators. Wishful thinking on my part that tech wealth would trickle down more effectively in Ireland than in the US. On the homelessness crisis: Amazing that housing prices in Dublin have jumped up 22.3% YoY. [1] What else do you see contributing to the rise in poverty/homelessness and the decline in living standards in Ireland? [1] http://www.globalpropertyguide.com/Europe/Ireland/Price-History http://www.globalpropertyguide.com/Europe/Ireland/Price-Hist...
- gearoidoc 11y ago
  Dublin is a different animal than the rest of Ireland because the country is very centralised there (despite some efforts to combat this). It would like measuring the average house price in the US by just measuring the BA. I can buy a house in my hometown which is well serviced by schools and more than the essentials for about €150k. The one thing that Ireland gets right is access to 3rd level education. I'm constantly floored by the amount of debt that students in North American and UK (or wherever else) pile up getting educated. I will concede that their standard of education is probably higher but, personal experience, I see very little difference in the average standard of graduate produced. Coming from a working class background, I was lucky enough to be on the grant system so would have received about €3.5k a year to attend college - it wasn't huge and I obviously had to work part time but it certainly helped. Anyway, the point I'm trying to arrive at is that the best way for a society to progress is via education and I think we're doing good (though it could be much better) at this right now.
  - maccard 11y ago
    Despite there not being any fees in IrelNd, you have to pay a student contribution fee (which as a grant receiver you were exempt from) which is currently 3.5k/year and set to continue rising. Really the grant gives you more like 7k/yr as you don't have to pay that fee (which had to be paid up front in one lump sun)
- rmc 11y ago

bcoughlan 11y ago

If anything there has been a net emigration of young people here in the past few years due to the global economic crisis. We have had multi-national technology companies in Ireland for a long time, so it's not that. Ireland lived under the thumb of the church until the 80s. They dictated the morals of the nation, and when their corruption and hypocrisy was exposed it became OK to speak out against them without being ostracized. Condoms were legalized in 1978, without prescription in 1985. Homosexuality in 1993. Divorce in 1995. We transitioned from one of the most conservative countries in the West to one of the most liberal in a remarkably short time. The gay marriage referendum was primarily seen as younger generation issues, but I was pleased to see that the older generations showed their support in the end - the general attitude was "It's not harming anyone, so why should I stand in their way". Our government, however, would never be the first to make bold reforms in drug laws. We have the United States, Portugal, the Netherlands and Spain to thank for the progress made. Some former ministers responsible for drugs have come out in support of treating it as a health instead of a criminal issue AFTER they left office. Anyways I think that this is just an election ploy for the youth vote. Here is what the current Taoiseach (prime minister) had to say about legalising cannabis on the Youtube Digital Debate Q&A at the last election: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V6k9sohbulg https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V6k9sohbulg (the typical answer to a question was about a minute).

lucaspiller 11y ago

Unless you are Google size the tax laws don't really make any difference, even then you only need to have a company registered there, you don't need an office full of techies. Dublin is good for tech companies as it's easy to do business and get investment, English is the main language, there is good internet [0], you can quickly get to central Europe (thanks Ryanair), and compared to London the cost of living is a lot lower. It's just a shame about the weather... [0] Unless you are stuck in a building only served by Eircom.