This is where Ireland plays a critical role, as a gateway from where Canadian businesses can navigate the EU market.
Many business leaders in Canada might not realise that Ireland isn’t so much a destination – a market to be served in its own right – as much as it is a launchpad. As the foremost English-speaking country within the European Union, Ireland is the perfect platform for Canadian companies to expand and scale into the wider region.
As a committed member of the EU, Ireland is well placed to help Canadian companies navigate the complexity involved in doing business through different languages and cultures across the continent.
A stable location for scaling
Here are some of the reasons why we can say this with confidence: IDA Ireland, the Government’s investment promotion agency, has a 75-year track record in welcoming multinationals to the country, and supporting them in setting up their business. To date, more than 1,800 companies have set up across the nation, in sectors ranging from biopharmaceuticals and medical devices to financial services, business services, engineering, and technology, among others.Businesses crave certainty, and Ireland has provided consistent support and transparency for inward investors setting up or expanding their operations here.Ireland offers the crucial element of stability that has gained additional currency in the recent unsettled trade climate.
Years of pro-enterprise policies by successive governments, together with a range of OECD-compliant tax incentives and supports, further de-risks Ireland as a suitable location to scale and grow. The IMD World Competitiveness Yearbook 2024 ranked Ireland second in the world for business incentives.
Talent show: meeting industry skills needs
What’s more, Ireland offers the skills that businesses need: its young population is highly educated, with 62.7% of people aged 25-34 holding a third-level qualification in 2023, according to Eurostat. This is the highest rate in the EU-27 countries and well above the average of 43.1%. The quality and variety of talent in our workforce makes Ireland an ideal location for Canadian companies looking for the capabilities to service and grow their European business and beyond.The free movement of people afforded by EU membership has also meant Ireland can easily attract talent from beyond its borders, giving Canadian companies access to a recruitment pool of close to 200 million people to hire from. Furthermore, Ireland has an open immigration policy for high-demand skills, allowing companies to hire from beyond the EEA when required, giving Ireland an increasingly diverse population, hailing from all corners of the globe.
Some might be concerned that the presence of many multinationals means that newer entrants to the market will be fighting for talent with technology heavyweights or globally renowned pharmaceutical companies. In fact, many business leaders tell us that this activity has resulted in a more dynamic, experienced workforce.
At a national level, Government support allied to a proactive education sector means that there is ongoing work to create and maintain a pipeline of skills across a range of disciplines. Irish third-level institutions are renowned for their openness to collaboration and tailoring course material to meet industry needs.
Canadian companies at home in Ireland
Canadian companies are already discovering this for themselves. In 2024, Toronto-headquartered Element Fleet, the world’s largest pure-play automotive fleet manager, announced it was creating 70 new jobs for its centralised leasing function located in Dublin, Ireland. Laura Dottori-Attanasio, Element’s President and CEO, called Ireland “an ideal environment” due to its rich pool of professionals with specialised knowledge and expertise in the leasing industry.The cybersecurity company eSentire set up an operation in Cork that operates hand in glove with its headquarters in Ontario, taking advantage of the time zone difference to provide 24-hour support for customers. Like countless other multinationals that have come to Ireland, eSentire has also added more functions to its operations over time, becoming a service delivery centre of excellence, and adding go-to-market teams and customer success roles. Today, the Cork office is a strategic operation for eSentire, home to a significant proportion of its total global workforce.
Clio of Vancouver, which describes itself as an “operating system for law firms”, set up its Dublin operation, specifically to address the needs of customers in the EU around data residency and the ability to access nearby customer support. “We very quickly honed in on Dublin as an ideal location to start building out our international team. I would say we took a bet on Dublin fairly early in its ascendancy. In 2014, it was pretty early in Dublin’s evolution into a leading tech hub. But it’s a bet I’m really happy we made,” Clio CEO Jack Newton said recently.
Its Dublin operation has grown to more than 50 employees and the company anticipates it will double that headcount over the next couple of years as it continues to grow across the entire EMEA region.Last year, Clio raised $900 million in the largest venture funding investment in Canadian technology history.
Growth is a strong theme connecting Canada and Ireland: as economic links between both countries grow, the number of new IDA clients originating from Canada has risen steadily in recent years. In 2018, there were 38 Canadian-headquartered companies in IDA’s portfolio, employing close to 4,000 people. By the end of 2024, the number of Canadian companies had increased to 63, with more than 7,000 people employed in Ireland – almost doubling in number and employment. 40% of Canadian operations (representing 73% of Canadian employment) in Ireland are located outside of Dublin.
The Canadian companies that have set up in Ireland come from sectors such as financial services, information technology, and industrial tech. Eight of the Top 10 Canadian companies have a presence in Ireland; four of the top six Canadian banks also have operations in Ireland, as do four of the five leading Canadian software companies. Top Canadian insurance companies in IDA’s portfolio include Sunlife, which celebrated 25 years in Waterford in 2023, Fairfax, and Canada Life, the parent company of Irish Life. Other familiar names include Scotiabank, National Bank of Canada, TD Global Finance, Bank Of Montréal Europe, Brookfield Renewable, Celestica, Greenfield Global, OpenText, Constellation Software, Couche Tard, and Descartes.
Gateway to Europe
Ireland’s position as a gateway to Europe is especially attractive to Canadian companies. There are no barriers to trade between Canada and the European Union, because of the 2014 Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA) that removed tariffs on most goods and services. Compare this with some industries, where tariffs are common even when doing business between different provinces within Canada.Since 2017, the Canada-European Union Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA) has been in place, giving Canadian businesses preferential access to the EU market. In the intervening time, the agreement has led to a 66% increase in bilateral goods trade.
The attraction of this island nation goes beyond well-established companies: according to Frontline Ventures, Ireland is one of the top three locations for companies making their first landing into Europe, while 86% of startups choose Ireland or the UK as their preferred first landing location. With the UK having left the EU following Brexit in 2016, Ireland is now the leading English-speaking EU member state. (Despite Brexit however, Ireland is in the unique position of having a free trade agreement with the UK as well, which is another plus point for Canadian companies doing business in that market from an Irish base.)
Many leading research centres work closely with industry to investigate solutions for real-world problems. For example, the National Institute for Bioprocessing Research and Training (NIBRT) supports the advance of biopharmaceutical manufacturing in Ireland by helping the companies that are developing their manufacturing facilities here. This is a global centre of excellence with world-class facilities. Since 2021, it has worked with the Canadian Alliance for Skills and Training in Life Sciences (CASTL) which is the exclusive provider of NIBRT licensed training programmes in Canada.In a rapidly changing world, Ireland is not standing still. It’s encouraging innovation and research across many domains. Over the past 10 years, investment in research, development and innovation by IDA Ireland client companies increased by 381%.
The IDA Ireland influence smooths the landing
That’s just one example of the close support and collaboration that Canadian companies can expect when they set up in Ireland. Another is IDA Ireland itself: Clio CEO Jack Newton was full of praise for the Government’s investment promotion agency when his company was deciding where to set up in what was, at the time, a brand-new market for the company.“From the very early days of us evaluating which city and country we would found our EMEA headquarters in, the shortlist back in 2014 was Dublin, London, and Luxembourg. The IDA engaged us really early in that process and, I would say, was single-handedly one of the most important influences on our decision to site an office in Dublin,” he said in a recent interview with Siliconrepublic.com.
He spoke of how IDA Ireland helped the company to understand the talent landscape and how to set up its recruitment. “They were helpful even in tactical stuff like finding office space and helping us evaluate which part of Dublin we might want to be in, and which kinds of office spaces would be suitable for our needs. They helped us connect with the local tech scene… Over the last decade, they’ve been very supportive in helping us understand what kinds of grant programmes might be accessible to us and different ways the Government here can help support our expansion and growth efforts.”
He is describing the kind of welcome that every new investor to Ireland receives: proactive, engaged, and committed to helping businesses succeed.