Speaking as another Irish person, I find it disheartening to see a compatriot playing to the prejudices of our critics. The country has vastly more to offer tha

Speaking as another Irish person, I find it disheartening to see a compatriot playing to the prejudices of our critics. The country has vastly more to offer than just tax incentives, and it is not and has never been a tax haven in the sense that Bermuda or the Cayman Islands are. We were attracting significant high-tech FDI as far back as the '70s, from companies like Apple, IBM, DEC, Amdahl and Atari. They set up manufacturing and sales operations here, in an era when the corporate tax rate climbed as high as 50%! As simonh noted in his reply to your comment, "Having those technical and finance jobs in Ireland builds up a reservoir of skilled labour in those areas that attracts companies. I saw this first hand at at a previous employer. We would preferentially move technology roles to Ireland - speak excellent English, in the EU, cheap office space and plenty of technically capable workers." Apple's sweetheart deal with the tax authorities here is an embarrassment, but the lesson has been learnt and we won't see that kind of arrangement occurring again.