An Taoiseach, Leo Varadkar TD, today (Wednesday) is participating in a series of events highlighting how transatlantic trade, investment and research cooperation benefits Ireland and the United States.
The Taoiseach has also launched the Global Ireland campaign, coupled with the latest phase of Ireland.ie, a multi-sectoral website curated by the Government of Ireland, for people all over the world to find out about Ireland. It aims to showcase Ireland as a place in which to live, visit, invest and study. Ireland.ie is now available in 5 languages, with more to follow, and has information on the Government of Ireland’s ‘footprint’ around the world including contact details of our Embassies, Consulates, and State Agencies.
The Taoiseach began his day at the US Chamber of Commerce, where he met senior executives from a dozen leading US firms, collectively employing more than 20,000 people in Ireland, to discuss future international investment. He then travelled to the US Institute of Peace, where he hosted a roundtable with executives from Irish companies with a growing presence in the US. The firms represented, all clients of Enterprise Ireland, employ more than 50,000 US residents, with hundreds of operations across America.
Following this roundtable, Mr Varadkar addressed a conference organised by Science Foundation Ireland (SFI) and presented the agency’s St Patrick’s Day Medals for Science and Industry to Professor Margaret Murnane and Mr David McCourt. Noting the valuable innovations US firms have developed based on SFI funded research, the Taoiseach announced a series of new transatlantic partnerships between SFI Research Centres and American businesses and institutions in areas as diverse as medical devices, photonics and the bio-economy.
Speaking about Ireland-US trade links, the Taoiseach said:
“Irish businesses employ Americans. Over 100,000 to be exact, across all fifty states, and this investment is increasing. Last year, Enterprise Ireland client companies opened 59 new offices across the US, an 18% increase on 2016, bringing to almost 500 the number of Irish firms with facilities here. As significant as this direct investment is, it represents only part of Ireland’s contribution to the US economy, with Irish immigrants, such as the Collison brothers, founders of Silicon Valley headquartered Stripe, and Mr Pearse Lyons, founder of Kentucky based Alltech, creating huge value through their US firms.
Finally, Mr Varadkar addressed a Global Ireland lunch attended by over 300 senior Irish and US business leaders and policymakers, where he launched the updated Ireland.ie website, as part of the new Global Ireland campaign.
Speaking about the Global Ireland initiative, the Taoiseach said:
“As an outward-focussed, trade-dependent country, Ireland knows we need to be at the top of our game in telling our story to the world. Global competition for investment, for trade, for market share has never been stronger. Countries, like successful enterprises, have to make sure that their voice is heard when people make the important decisions – whether on policy matters or in business.
“Global Ireland is how Ireland will tell our story in a more unified, compelling and coherent way, optimising our place in the increasingly busy digital world. It presents a country that is self-confident, ambitious, outward facing, and forward looking. Global Ireland is kicking off today with a digital communications campaign called ‘Ireland – Here we Live’. It presents Ireland as we are, not a small country on the edge of Europe, but an island at the centre of the world.
“Through Global Ireland, we want to connect to people interested in Ireland: people who want to live and work there; who want to do business or study with us; who want to visit Ireland, for work or for pleasure; or those who simply want to know more about us. The communications campaign will be delivered on our updated online portal – Ireland.ie – a central hub for international visitors, with clear signposts and links to the wealth of information about us.”
The Taoiseach will address the American Ireland Fund Gala Dinner on Wednesday evening, ahead of his programme at the White House and Capitol Hill on Thursday.