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I'm Irish and I hate to say it but it's hard not to agree that we wouldn't be in a much worse state if we hadn't become a de facto tax haven for companies enter
by secfirstmd 8y ago
I'm Irish and I hate to say it but it's hard not to agree that we wouldn't be in a much worse state if we hadn't become a de facto tax haven for companies entering the EU. Yes we do have a well educated, English speaking, flexible and fun workforce but let's be real, most of the companies wouldn't be here (at least initially) if it wasn't for tax.
While it's mostly positive, the presence of big multinationals also causes problems. For one, most of them are doing marketing, services etc rather than development. This means they are more flexible to move elsewhere.
Also, they are a brain drain from local enterprises. Irish people seem to have this ingrained thing whereby they prefer to stay at a big company rather than move. It means we haven't seen the positive spin-outs that we should have when so many big companies are in the country for so long. I can't think of a billion dollar sized company that has been built here in Ireland in the tech sector. Even Stripe had to go abroad.