Declan Murphy

In 1984 the GDB of Ireland was €20bn Today the GDP of Ireland is €600bn This is the fastest growth rate of any country in 40 years. Yes that includes China. But there’s are 2 problems… 1. Irelands infrastructure hasn’t scaled with its economy (housing, transport etc) 2. 80% of Irelands GDP is created by multi-national companies Multi-nationals were encouraged to set up in ireland by the Haughey administration and is responsible for Ireland’s incredible growth over the last 40 years. It was a crucial and necessary first step to kickstart the economy in Ireland and to build important networks in tech and pharma. Now that we have two generations of highly educated and savvy individuals we need to focus on creating our own companies, not just providing workers for other countries companies. Why is this important? There’s a great analogy in startups.. when you’re building a company and a major component relies on a 3rd party it causes huge risk to your company. If they go bust what do you do? If they raise their prices beyond what you can pay what happens your company? If multi-nationals pull their companies from ireland what do we do? We’ve seen this happening over the last number of years but I don’t think the magnitude of the issue really has made its way to the forefront of the national media so folks don’t realize how important it is. So what can we do to protect ourselves from this given that 80% of our wealth comes from multi-nats? Ireland has a $50bn sovereign wealth fund that can be used to generate wealth for the country that can we reinvested into Irish founders and infrastructure. But will not if focused on limiting/regulating tech which is the fastest growth sector in the world. We need to get rid of the tall poppy culture. Let people dream big. Support people who want to change the world and believe that they can. Encourage progress and let go of the conservative fear-based mindset. Look at existing companies in Ireland like Stripe, Google and soon Open AI to find talented people to invest in. Stop regulating away tech’s future (data privacy / ai / crypto) Invest in nuclear the cheapest and safest form of energy (not esg which the data has proven to have terrible ROI) Build small towns with lots of housing along commuter train lines into the city so young people can get housing close to Dublin where the jobs and existing networks are Standardize more favorable term sheets for irish startups Encourage angel investing with tax incentives If we do this, maybe the next trillion dollar company will come out of Ireland creating jobs and stimulating the economy from within. All it takes is a simple mindset shift. Éire abú ☘️