I spent last week going through the Census of Industrial Production reports, 1983 to 2006, in order to find out just how many jobs in Ireland are provided directly by foreign investment.
This graph is what I got.

Notice how there is virtually no change in foreign-based industrial employment from the early 1980s onwards - in fact, [...]

Despite the popular perception of Ireland as a closed, backward economy until the arrival of Whittaker and his economic program, the State had always had a relatively open economy. Even in the 1950s, the value of its imports and exports was between between 66 and 70 per cent of GDP. The problem was the nature [...]

A small follow on from Michael Taft’s post, about the well-known exports tax scam known as the “Double-Irish”.
The story of the tax scam has gone around the world and some at this stage, but I’ve yet to see or hear of it on Irish TV or radio, or in the print media.
Following on from my [...]

While DUP and Sinn Fein politicians in the Stormont coalition argue about policing and parades the economy of Northern Ireland is worsening by the day. Twenty thousand people lost their jobs in Northern Ireland 1n 2009.You’d think that our elected representatives might want to discuss that instead.
Last week while political leaders from the DUP and [...]

The news that between 450 and 600 jobs are to go in Derry at call centres operated by US-owned outsourcing firm Stream has come as another blow to the economy of Northern Ireland. According to the local press, Stream’s decision to cut back on its Derry operation stems from the loss of an important Post [...]