Good morning everyone.
It’s a great pleasure to be here in Austin.
It’s traditional for me as Taoiseach to spend St. Patrick’s Day in the United States.
I will be in Washington on Monday and Tuesday to meet with President Obama, Vice President Biden and Speaker Boehner to reaffirm the historic friendship between our two nations and to discuss the full range of issues that concern both countries.
But my visit to Austin today is about opening the next chapter of our historic friendship. About building new business links and prospering from new trade between each other.
Ireland is a nation of exporters; we export 80% of everything we produce. We love doing business with the world and many return to set up new bases in Ireland.
I know that, like Ireland, Austin is very proud of its burgeoning tech sector.
Ireland’s talent and track record of enterprise attracts in record levels of US investment. American companies have invested over $277 billion in Ireland since 1990. This is more than the level of investment in the four BRIC nations, Brazil, Russia, India and China combined.
Later today, I’ll be opening our new Ireland House offices, which will be responsible for building new business links.
This will house our new Consulate General, the first EU consulate in the city. It will also house the offices of our trade and investment agencies.
I’m particularly excited to be here during South by Southwest Interactive, and I’ll be delivering a talk later on this morning about why Ireland has become a global technology hub.
It is because Ireland has become a hub for innovation and enterprise.
As the only English-speaking country in the eurozone we offer barrier-free access to a market of half a billion people.
We have a young, passionate and talented population.
We remain fully committed to pursuing policies that create the ideal conditions for enterprise and investment. Our transparent 12.5% corporate tax rate is clear and our commitment to it is rock-solid. We have added to this some of the best incentives in the world for research and development.
These are some of the reasons why over a thousand global companies, including 9 of the top 10 US tech companies and all of the top 10 ‘Born on the Internet’ companies are located in Ireland.
Members of the tech team from IDA, our investment agency, are here today.
They are here to help and to share experiences on doing business in Ireland. Please feel free to reach out to them with any questions you have.
Ireland and the United States have enjoyed a historic bond of friendship for centuries.
I hope that today, in this room, we can begin new chapters to that story.
Thank you all for coming.