Every time I receive an enquiry from a potential overseas client I am surprised at how much I take for granted businesswise in Ireland that isn’t necessarily the case in other countries, both outside and indeed inside the European Union. I regularly talk to clients from France, US, Israel, Turkey, Australia and UK amongst others who comment that they find it easy to do business in Ireland compared to their own countries. Why is this I wonder?

Ireland still remains the land of a hundred thousand welcomes or “cead mile failte” in Irish. We are a small country whose greatest natural resource remains its people. We like to talk and we like to help. I remember one anecdote from a few years ago about the average talk time in an Irish call centre that looked after western Europe. They found that the talk time was 50% longer than in the German equivalent. After investigating this they discovered that customers in continental Europe liked to talk to the Irish call centre because they were friendlier and more helpful.

We have benefitted tremendously from our membership of the EU over the last 40 years. This has transformed our country into a confident, modern and outward looking nation that has benefitted hugely from the influx of overseas nationals from the four corners of the world.

There are so many advantages of doing business in Ireland that I won’t trot out the usual statistics that demonstrate same. What I will say is that doing business in Ireland is easy and straightforward, from establishing a business, remaining compliant, recruiting team members, engaging with clients and customers alike. We have adopted all relevant EU legislation affecting businesses including accounting and business standards but we operate with an entrepreneurial spirit that uses regulations and standards in a positive rather than constraining manner.

If you want to experience the “buzz” in Ireland simply walk down through the centre of Dublin or other large cities on almost any evening and you will get a tremendous insight into the atmosphere and vibrancy that exists. Remember to bring the umbrella as it does occasionally rain in Ireland!

In many jurisdictions Federal Government has put in place levels of bureaucracy which stifles business. As a small open economy this bureaucracy is much reduced in Ireland. Yes, on occasions companies will experience frustrations but nothing that can’t be overcome in a timely manner.

We have built up strong sectoral cluster in areas as diverse as;

• Technology
• Sustainable food
• Energy
• Financial services
• Medical technologies
• Outsourcing.

These clusters typically located in one or more locations in Ireland make establishing a business so much easier as the knowledge base and support infrastructure is well developed.

Did I mention that we love sport in Ireland? We will attend any sporting event from our national games to rugby, soccer, golf etc etc etc.

In summary with all of the above how could we not be a great country to do business in? Oh I also forgot we have great “craic” and a good work life balance. From a business and life perspective it surely is the best place to be.