Why would you bother investing in Northern Ireland?

Retired Irish Civil Servant Niall MacSuibhne (formerly the Irish Revenue dept) writes about what attracts multinationals to a region Ernst & Young publishes an annual review of Foreign Direct Investment in Europe and has done so for some years. These “attractiveness reports” as they are quaintly called give a continent wide picture of trends within the FDI sector, including both EU and the rest of Europe, so regularly ignored by commentators. The bad news for UKNI and those pushing the role of …

Read more…

How do Robinson and McGuinness explain their anti- EU stances to Brazilian and other would be overseas investors?

The Financial Times (£)  have another report warning of possible dire consequences if the UK voted to leave the EU in a 2017 referendum,  not least for Ireland north and south. An UK exit from the EU would produce huge complications to cross border trade – you can just imagine trying to put in place bilateral arrangements,” said Steve Aitken, chief executive of the British-Irish Chamber of Commerce. “Businesses don’t recognise the national boundaries that politicians do and are extremely …

Read more…

“I wouldn’t suggest that the executive’s programme for government is quite so meaningless…”

The once and future Northern Ireland deputy First Minister, and Sinn Féin’s candidate in the Irish Presidential race, Martin McGuinness, MP, MLA, is keen to promote his “strong  track record in seeking Foreign Direct Investment, leading important Trade Missions and attracting investment and jobs”.  But, as Mark Devenport highlights from the leaked draft programme for government, [as with so many things… – Ed] that’s only half the story. However, glancing at the draft obtained this week by my colleague Martina Purdy, you …

Read more…