Michael Lohan, the chief executive of State agency IDA Ireland, has been chosen as The Irish Times Business Person of the Month for December, an award run in association with Bank of Ireland.
This follows the publication of IDA’s full-year results during the month, which showed the agency supported a record 323 investments into Ireland last year with the potential to create 15,300 new jobs.
The flow of multinational investment here came against the backdrop of the uncertainty caused by Donald Trump’s tariffs in April and a steady flow of comments he made about imposing levies on the pharma sector, a vital source of exports, jobs and tax revenue for the State.
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The number of investments last year was up 38 per cent on 2024, the IDA said. They included 78 “new-name” investments, which the IDA said highlighted “Ireland’s continued attraction for first-time investors”.
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Of those new-name investments, 38 were from North America, which was up on the previous year.
Employment in IDA client companies rose by 1.5 per cent to stand at 312,400, which was also a record.
Lohan, who became IDA chief executive in April 2023, having joined the agency 20 years earlier, said it had “broken new ground” in terms of research, development and innovation investment with 80 projects supporting a record €2.5 billion in client expenditure.
