Wednesday, September 30, 2020

One thing at a time: Foreign Direct Investment & Ireland's International Financial Services Centre

 This piece is to explain as best I can, the benefit or other to the Irish public, as a whole, of the near total obsession of “official Ireland” with Foreign Direct Investment, and a willingness to be blind to the activities in the IFSC. Most people just do their job, and their knowledge of the job, is based on their ”need to know”. However, many, if not most individuals are, at sometime, called upon to stand by their own integrity, and that sometimes calls for individuals to object to ”the job” or even to walk away from it. Fixing any system, is dependent on individual integrity, amongst other things. 



There was a time when the IFSC didn’t exist. Back then most people owned their own houses and weren’t burdened by large debt. Today, as per an RTE reporter a couple of weeks ago, Ireland Inc. is now the tenth most attractive corporation in the world for FDI. One might well ask if there is a connection between the IFSC and FDI. I would say, very much so. However, therein lies a big mystery. Traffic through the IFSC, doesn’t always yield a ”road tax” for the benefit of Irish people, a fact well explained in the TWZ report of June 2018. That report outlined certain facts about, ”shifted profits”, Ireland Inc. being the recipient/destination, of more than €100 billion in 2015.

https://theplatform.ie/elementor-1465/

James Miller, Public Banking Forum


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