Ireland is now determined to develop native businesses with "global ambitions" similar to those of the US companies which have invested in Ireland for many years, the Taoiseach said last night.
He made his remarks to an audience including many San Jose business leaders as four Irish companies announced plans to expand in the US through acquisition, partnership and contract deals worth €9 million to the companies.
Speaking at a dinner marking the 20th anniversary of the twinning of Dublin with San Jose, Mr Ahern said over 600 US companies directly employ more than 90,000 people in Ireland, and that this amounted to 5 per cent of the Irish workforce. "Total US investment in Ireland, at over $73 billion, is nearly five times what it is in China," he added.
Referring to the expansion plans of the four Irish companies, Mr Ahern highlighted the growth of Irish businesses in the US. There were now some 300 offices of Irish companies in 35 of the 50 US states, he said, and employment by Irish companies there now stood in excess of 55,000.
The Taoiseach said the most important factor driving Ireland's success was education. EU membership, a stable economic environment, low corporate tax and our English-speaking population also played a part. Mr Ahern was speaking at the Spirit of Ireland dinner attended last night by business and civic leaders and Irish-Americans.
He gave the same message at a meeting in the afternoon with Hewlett Packard chief executive Mark Hurd, whose company employs some 4,000 people in seven different projects in Ireland. Mr Ahern discussed the prospects for links between the company and Ireland in the context of plans to develop "e-government" and "e-health projects".
In his speech Mr Ahern said that 1986, the year of the twinning of the two cities, was "a bleak time" in Ireland involving "mass unemployment, spiralling national debt and a deep sense of despair for many people". In present-day Ireland "our economy is thriving, our people are at work, and Ireland is at peace It is with great pride that I stand here tonight as the leader of a country that has been transformed."
In relation to the North, the IRA had ended its armed campaign and decommissioned its weapons.
"It was also a triumph for our friends around the world, and especially here in America, who steadfastly supported us as we sought to build a better future." Dublin and San Jose had built political, cultural and sporting connections, he added.
"However, the most obvious, and possibly the most important, feature of this relationship has been in the technology sector Big-name Silicon Valley companies like Apple, Intel, Xilinx, Hewlett Packard and Oracle have had significant operations in Ireland for a number of years" and Ireland had also attracted companies that are leading the internet revolution, such as Google, eBay and Yahoo.
Earlier he attended a lunch hosted by Tourism Ireland at which he said tourist numbers to Dublin had increased five-fold since 1986.