merrion street

Speaking today (3rd February 2012) at the German-Irish Chamber of Industry and Commerce business lunch, Minister for State at the Department of Finance, Mr. Brian Hayes T.D. spoke about the strong trading links that exits between Ireland and Germany and emphasised the benefit to both Ireland and Germany of further enhancing and developing these links in the future.

The Minister stated “Germany is Ireland’s fourth largest export market, with merchandise sales of more than €7 billion in 2010. Latest figures show that exports from Germany to Ireland were up almost 15% while Irish exports to Germany were up 5% in 2011, which is very good news. While our main exports here are pharmaceuticals, chemicals and IT products, German consumers have also acquired a taste for Irish food and exports of beef and dairy products have increased substantially in the past two years.

In all 100 German companies have investments in Ireland, employing over 9,000 people and only the United States is more important to Ireland than Germany as a source of foreign direct investment. With our highly-skilled workforce and our enterprise-friendly society, Ireland offers German companies a positive and profitable environment for their international operations.

I would appeal to you as Chamber members to continue to play your vital role in growing further this economic relationship and in doing so to get closer still to the Irish-German business community based in Germany. Our Embassy, our state agencies and the various business networks there are worth tapping into and stand available to help you.”