Ireland ‘in serious position’ to win 10 US projects, says Richard Bruton

Ireland is in "a very serious position" to win 10 projects to attract new US companies or expand the operations of existing Irish multinational companies, the Minister for Jobs Richard Bruton has said.

Speaking in New York on the third-day of a trade mission to the US east coast, Mr Bruton said following discussions with the companies that the projects were “significant expansions or developments” in terms of the potential to create jobs.

The Minister is leading an Irish delegation comprising the IDA and Enterprise Ireland in meetings with 20 large companies in life sciences, financial services and technology in Boston, Connecticut, New York and New Jersey.

Mr Bruton announced the creation of 45 jobs, software engineering roles, at the Dublin offices of online retailer Gilt, which also has offices in Limerick. The company already employs 150 people in Ireland.

As Central Statistics Office data showed unadjusted unemployment levels falling below 400,000 for the first time since May 2009, Mr Bruton said the Government was working to a target of 100,000 new jobs as part of the Action Plan for Jobs, and that 3,000 jobs a month were being created.

International mood change
Plans to change tax legislation to target multinationals that use Ireland to save tax on "stateless" income had barely figured in the topics raised by US companies on his trip, he said. "There would obviously be an awareness of the international mood change but they don't see that as in any way affecting Ireland," he said. "This was rarely raised, if at all."

Mr Bruton said that it had been “very encouraging” to see a “maturing of the ecosystem in Ireland” as US companies deepen their involvement by developing new technology in Irish operations.

Responding to the decision of Danish lender Danske to end personal banking in Ireland, the Minister said that the Government was pushing for the Irish banks to develop a greater expertise in lending to small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), while developing more non-banking sources of finance.

'Continuing challenge'
"We need to get Irish banking much more focused on SMEs and need to be not bankers to property and commission-led banking," he said. He described the change that was required in Irish banking as "a continuing challenge".

Danske's decision follows this week's announcement from Rabobank to close Irish lender ACC Bank.

“These particular banks have not been players for quite a considerable period of time . . . They have been de facto withdrawing as a force for SME lending for a very considerable period,” he said.

The Government has created €2.5 billion of State-sponsored sources of finance through the National Pension Reserve Fund, Enterprise Ireland and the loan guarantee and microfinance schemes.

These developments were based on a “conscious understanding that you are not going to go back to where you were in terms of banking,” he said.