A strong start to 2022 despite global turbulence

American Chamber of Commerce Ireland chief executive Mark Redmond believes the relationship between Ireland and the US is stronger than ever, in both directions. “Earlier this week AmCham led the largest ever Irish delegation to the SelectUSA Investment Summit,” he points out. “The event is aimed at attracting investment into the US and Ireland is now the ninth biggest foreign investor into the US. This is the result of decades of US investment into Ireland. US companies now employ 190,000 people directly and a further 152,000 people indirectly in Ireland.”

The investment flow continues. “We’ve had a very strong start to 2022 in spite of the global turbulence,” says Redmond. This follows a record year for IDA-supported investments in 2021.

According to Redmond, the recent visit of members of the US House Ways and Means Committee, led by chairman Richard Neal and the ranking Republican member Kevin Brady, highlighted the strength of the relationship.

“The committee members met with AmCham and a number of our member companies clustered around the border area. The committee members emphasised the importance of protecting the Good Friday Agreement while AmCham members had very good discussions with them on the need to have no borders and no barriers to trade and business on the island. Our members also emphasised the need for certainty and trust in international agreements.”

According to Redmond, Ireland’s future success in attracting inward investment will be dependent on a number of key factors. “The first is Ireland retaining its reputation as an attractive place to live and work and build a career,”, he says. “The second is the development of the physical and digital infrastructure required to support future investment. And the third is that Ireland remains an attractive place to carry out research, development and innovation.”

He points to the crisis in residential accommodation and infrastructural capacity as challenges to be met in terms of Ireland’s attractiveness as a place to live and work. “The provision of housing that people want to live in is very important. In the infrastructure area I would call out energy capacity, particularly in the context of the impact of global inflation and logjams in supply chains. This has an impact on multinational companies if they want to expand their facilities. There is also a need for continued investment in renewable energy.”

Transport is another area of importance. “Investment in public transport infrastructure is very important, of course, but we must not forget private transport options in regions like the northwest which are underserved by public transport. Air connectivity needs to be maintained as well. We need to ensure continued connectivity to the US and Europe from both the east and west of the country.”

In the research and innovation space, he says that it is very important that Ireland continues to demonstrate its commitment to supports like the Disruptive Technologies Investment Fund as well as attracting leading researchers and PhD students into the country.

“We have a great network of research centres across the country overseen by SFI [Science Foundation Ireland] and pockets of research excellence throughout the third level systems,” he notes. “There is strong competition for where multinationals invest their R&D dollars and Ireland needs to maintain its attractiveness for that spend both in traditional areas like pharma and medtech as well as in emerging technologies like AI and quantum computing.”

Ireland’s skilled and talented workforce is one of our main competitive advantages for attracting and retaining US investment, he adds. This is becoming even more important amid a global talent shortage.

However, there are issues which need to be addressed in the new post-pandemic environment. “People working in non-manufacturing roles now have the advantage of being able to work wherever they like regardless of where in the country their employer is located,” says Redmond. “That might mean more people choosing to live and work in the west of Ireland, for example, but that could have the effect of adding to wage inflation for companies in that region who will face increased competition for talent. We need a balanced regional approach to talent attraction and retention.”

That needs to be coupled with continued investment in higher education. “That is essential if we want to retain our reputation for remarkable talent that delivers results. That means having internationally recognised third-level institutions. The clustering of institutes of technology into technological universities has been a very welcome development. But it’s a very competitive space and very important that Ireland invests in the third level system to retain its international standing.”

Sustainability is another key issue. “When we reflect on the inflationary pressures driving energy costs upward, we need to focus on what lies within our control,” he contends. “Reform of the planning process is one of those things. We are in a race against time when it comes to delivering wave, wind, and solar energy generation infrastructure and we must ensure that its development is not unnecessarily impeded by the planning processes. There is a danger that we will compound an inflation problem with excessive bureaucracy and red tape. Elements of our planning process have been sub-optimal up until now and need to be addressed.”

Business also has a role to play in addressing the climate emergency, Redmond concludes. “The 2022 AmCham Hackathon for our Emerging Leaders Programme focused on innovative ways to address the climate crisis. We had over 100 emerging leaders who spent from Thursday evening to Saturday morning coming up with highly innovative ideas to tackle the climate crisis. It was truly inspiring.”