Special visa for foreign entrepreneurs vital to creating jobs in Ireland

 

“The lion’s share of our exports go to the US, the UK and the Eurozone. All these regions have major economic difficulties at present and face years of austerity, economic stagnation or low growth. However, overall, the world economy is still growing. Brazil, Russia, India and China continue to power ahead while other countries are in decline. We, in Ireland, need to diversify our trade to ensure that our economy grows and that we can create new jobs. We need to turbo-charge our exports to Brazil, Russia, India and China.

 

“Our success in the 1990s was based on American companies using Ireland as a platform to export into Europe. We can replicate this with Brazilian, Russian, Indian and Chinese companies. It is very difficult to achieve this if foreign entrepreneurs who may be willing to invest significant sums in Ireland are unable to obtain a visa to live and work here.

 

“Such an entrepreneur visa could allow the IDA to headhunt specific individuals or companies from the BRIC countries to set up their European base in Ireland in order to export to Europe and beyond. Necessary safeguards can be introduced to ensure that only entrepreneurs prepared to invest significant sums of money in an enterprise established to generate significant employment in Ireland will qualify for the visa.

 

“Budget 2012 contained a number of specific measures, such as the Foreign Earnings Deduction, to make it cheaper and easier for Irish businesses to export to key growth markets such as Brazil, Russia, India, China. We must now look at the ways in which we can encourage entrepreneurs from these countries to do business in Ireland.