Over the last couple weeks I have learned a lot about Ireland and the effect it has on business decisions. Through company visits, guest speakers, and lectures, I have collected a number of main pros and cons of doing business in Ireland, which I will explain in the following section. After this, I will then discuss my personal opinion of whether or not I would invest in Ireland.

As far as the pros of doing business in Ireland, there are some pretty convincing points. After all, there must be a reason why so many businesses move into Ireland. Some of these pros are:

1. Low corporate tax rate (12.5%)
2. Only English speaking country in the EU (beneficial for English speaking businesses)
3. Diverse and young employee pool
4. Strong ties to EU markets
5. Supportive government body for businesses

These things sound pretty convincing, but there are also some key cons to note about Ireland before making a final decision. The mains cons to doing business in Ireland are:

1. High personal tax rate-this makes it harder to attract employees to work in Ireland, especially with how easy it is to work in other countries in the EU
2. Not a good market for products- many companies have headquarters in Ireland, but few produce goods there due to the lack of demand
3. Laws protecting intellectual property and consumer private data are drastically different/more strict
4. An economy highly dependent on other countries- Ex. the housing market crash in the US bankrupting Ireland

Now that the pros and cons have been laid out, I will explain my personal logic considering expansion of a business into Ireland. For example, if a company is asking if they should expand into Ireland, I would say it depends. It depends on the type of business they have as well as their goals for expanding into a new country. If a company has a lot of international influence as well as risk dispersion, I think it is a great idea to expand into Ireland and even form a headquarters there. Conversely, if a company wants to build a factory and sell to the local market, Ireland may not be the best place to do this. Overall, Ireland can be a very good option for a company as well as an easy pass.