Ireland’s relationship with multinationals

Four-thousand new jobs would be an enormous boon to Ireland’s economy. That’s what Amazon is offering to Ireland as and what it says it hopes to create. But it comes with some fairly heavy strings attached. Documents published in The Sunday Business Post today show us that the upper hand clearly lies with Amazon. In return for boosting the number of people it employs in Ireland from 2,000 to 6,000 people, it seems to feel it can lean heavily on the Irish government over matters related to planning, over the country’s energy infrastructure, and on the skills levels of Irish graduates. The implication was clear: if Amazon is to continue to invest, the government needs to ensure that these areas are fixed - and this is important - to Amazon’s satisfaction.