Ireland proves low taxes create jobs

AP/Houston Chronicle:

For decades, the mildewed bricks and decay of Dublin's derelict Docklands were the last thing many Irish emigrants saw of their homeland before they boarded the ferry to Britain in search of work.

These days, the place is being transformed into a land of rare opportunity Â? and a powerful magnet for ambitious people from around the world.

The new Docklands Â? where scores of cranes feed the frenzy for new hotels and gleaming office blocks Â? offer a vibrant microcosm of Ireland's rise from Europe's emigration black spot to its "brain gain" capital. Poles, Iranians, Swedes, Chinese and Nigerians are among the throngs performing tasks ranging from hawking fast-food to writing software code.

In the middle of it thrives a symbol for this new, immigrant-rich Ireland: the European headquarters of search-engine giant Google.

"A lot of companies are moving out of Europe, but it's the opposite in Ireland. The companies that have located here, like Google and Yahoo and eBay and so many others, are very attractive. So the place is very young and very international. It's really quite magnificent," said Renate Myhrstad, a 26-year-old Norwegian who is Google's training manager in Dublin.

The unprecedented wave of immigration comes on the back of a friendly invasion of high-tech multinationals that largely picked Ireland, rather than continental Europe, because Ireland's 12.5 percent tax rate on corporate profits is the lowest in Europe. The jobs sections of Irish newspapers are full of ads from household-name manufacturers of computers, software, pharmaceuticals and biotechnology Â? and the companies are casting a net throughout the 25-nation EU to come to Dublin.

Ireland boasts the European Union's highest per capita gross domestic product of $37,738.

"This is a very, very different place than the Ireland I left in 1993. It's focused on solutions instead of problems. It's a very innovative place where young, smart people thrive," said John Herlihy, a University College Dublin-trained accountant who emigrated to California to work for Oracle Corp. and Adobe Systems at a time when Ireland's unemployment rate was an EU-high 18 percent.

He returned home last year to an Ireland with unemployment at an EU-low 4.4 percent.

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More than 1,000 multinationals have operations here; about half are American-based, and about a third conduct research and development in Ireland. Besides the obvious benefits of Ireland's rock-bottom tax rate Â? a third of the U.S. rate of 35 percent, and much better than the western European average of 30 percent Â? American companies also like Ireland's command of English. Ireland also is considered better than Britain because the Irish use the convenient euro common currency.

Since 2004, Ireland also has offered a 20 percent tax credit for company spending on research and development. Science Foundation Ireland sponsors the work of foreign researchers at Irish universities and businesses here with hopes of more R&D.

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Over 130,000 have immigrated back to Ireland from the US. Perhaps we could get them to take Ted Kennedy and teach him and other Democrats something about tax policy and job growth.