Ireland as a Base for European Business

• Introduction
• Irish Government's Attitude To Foreign Direct Investment (FDI)
• Typical Trading Structures for Doing Business in Ireland
• Irish Tax Incentives Attracting Overseas Investment
• Banking & Finance in Ireland
• Ireland's Intellectual Property Framework (IP)
• Other Factors
• Conclusion

Banking & Finance in Ireland

There are more than eighty credit institutions in Ireland of which 11 are involved in retail banking and offer traditional banking services through a branch network. Most of these are publicly held companies with institutional investors holding the majority of shares.

Banking System in Ireland

The Irish banking system, like others across the world, have faced significant challenges during the past 12 months during the worldwide financial crisis.

Irish banks have been highly leveraged against property assets, this has resulted in further pressure on the Irish banking system as property values collapsed thus affecting the recoverability of their loans and increasing the incidence of bad debts.

Due to the fall in banks equity capital value there were suggestions that the major Irish banks may be nationalised. However the government have chosen an alternative strategy..setting up the National Asset Management Agency, N.A.M.A., to purchase the banks assets at a premium price and thereby release capital with the intention that this will flow through to business in the form of available credit. The lack of credit availablity has been a typical complaint amongst the SME sector during 2009, particularly the first half of the year, however there are signs that this is improving.

Positive signs have emerged within the EU for the third quarter of 2009 that show positive growth for the first time in 2009 and that the recession has officially ended which has boosted EU confidence and provided a welcome boost to our economy.