In 2019 Dublin is a thriving city and this is largely down to international tech giants such as Google, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and many others setting shop there.
This has led to a chain reaction in the local economy, that is felt across the greater Dublin area as the city enjoy’s 1000’s of high-paying jobs, which has also led to plenty of indirect employment. Most notably, the hospitality sectors have been reaping the rewards of Dublin’s booming corporate business influx, with trendy restaurants, cafe’s and luxury hotels in Dublin all flourishing, in no small part due to the tech boom coming to town.
The area is known as “Silicon Docks” and it’s based in the Docklands area of the Irish capital city. Since 2004, when Google moved in, this area between the Grand Canal and the Docklands has been in constant flux and this is where these tech giants base the lion’s share of their EU operations now.
But why have they chosen Dublin as a base? Here are some of the reasons:
IDA (Industrial Development Authority) Ireland
The IDA (Industrial Development Authority) in Ireland played a vital role in landing the first few big fish, which created the snowball effect.
From 1999-2001, IDA Ireland’s director of operations in California, Dermot Tuohy, made moves to bring the budding tech companies of the day, PayPal, eBay, and Google to Dublin.
In 2002, Google executives agreed to investigate the possibility of opening operations in Dublin.
Google’s property advisors at the time alerted them to a location at Grand Canal Dock, identifying the potential of a number of buildings on Barrow Street owned by developer Liam Carroll.
Within walking distance from the city centre, the location was seen by the company as having the right mix of factors to attract the type of employee they wanted in Dublin. Google’s California offices encouraged a college campus-style atmosphere, something achievable in the Grand Canal Dock location. The visitors decided that once the building, which was still under construction was complete, they would rent 60,000sq ft of Gordon House on Barrow Street, which they moved into in 2004.
The Talent Pool Available
Dublin has a high level of 3rd-level education, with famed institutions such as Trinity College, UCD, DCU and DIT all concentrated within a city which has a population of just 1m people.
The talent pool is most-often cited by major firm representatives as the reason for choosing Ireland to set up their European shop.
As well as the native talent, Dublin is a very accessible city and an attractive city for the youth of Europe to come and work, something that they have been doing – coming over in their droves to take up roles at the worlds elite tech companies.
Favourable Tax Rates
Ireland has controversially kept very favourable tax rates for corporations. At 12.5% it is half the EU average. This is a very attractive proposition to the major firms and gives them plenty of scope to keep expanding, as they have been doing.
An English Speaking EU State
Post-Brexit, Ireland will be the only state in the EU that speaks English as it’s primary language. Of course, nobody could have seen Brexit coming way back in the early noughties. However, since the vote two years ago there has been plenty of foreign direct investment into the city and no doubt the Brexit mess gave Ireland the edge in winning new business.
The conditions in Dublin are something of a perfect storm for international corporations and that storm seems to be getting bigger, with no end in sight.