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Comment by DavidHm | Hacker News Reader

No, but the Ireland government would surely object, because their cozy and soft relationship / taxes agreement with the tech giants is the only thing that's keeping them in Ireland.

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I agree that the Irish government can be too cosy (and too slow on data protection) with big companies but the idea that that is the only thing keeping them in Ireland is ridiculous.

Companies like Apple, Microsoft, Intel, Pfizer and IBM have been in Ireland for decades. They may come for the tax but they stay for the people. It has a highly educated workforce that is very flexible and easy to manage/work with. I've lived and worked all over the world and Irish employees are the easiest and most fun to work with - even compared to the UK. It's pretty simple to get visas for companies. Accommodation can be a bit tricky to sort in Dublin but it's nowhere near as expensive or bad as San Fran etc. People generally don't mind moving to work here as the work/life balance is good and it's a super safe/friendly place for foreigners and families.

It has some industries with significant clusters (pharma, data, aircraft leasing, finance, tech, marketing) a stable political and social environment. It's civil service is generally efficient and isn't corrupt, it's easy to pick up the phone to them or a politician if you have a problem and need advice - even as a small business.

It's also the only native English speaking country in the EU now, cheap to jump on a plane to anywhere else on the continent or the US and has good internet connectivity.

For more examples: https://www.idaireland.com/invest-in-ireland

I call bullshit.

Ireland has filled this role because:

a) you speak Irish English (~English), which is easily understandable by most English speakers

b) Ireland has consistently offered insanely low tax rates to american companies wishing to establish themselves in Europe. (This is coming to an end.)

That is it.

I said that they came for the taxes already but stay for other reasons.

Yeah.. no.

You seem like you have a bee in your bonnet. Have you spent or worked much in Ireland? You seem to be an expert on both our use of our national second language and what working in the country is like. Or are you you just firing randomly on HN today because you aren't willing to engage with the other points that I made? (I agreed about companies coming to Ireland for tax but staying for other reasons remember)

> a) you speak something roughly approaching English

Whoa there, down with that sort of stuff now friend. That's not a nice thing to say.

I thought quite a bit about that line. I ended up editing it to "~English" in the end, perhaps ten minutes before you commented. Don't you think that's fair? Irish English, to me, seems like a distinct/unique language. Very similar to English, sure.

I mean.. I don't think americans are speaking English, typically, if that's any help. They're speaking American, which is a fork of English from some point in time.

The word you're looking for is "dialect".

Nah.

These people were just looking to downvote someone who were against their tax evasion cash cow. That's where their outrage comes from.

Any other outrage is a misdirection.

"They're speaking a sort of English" certainly sounds demeaning to me. The people in Ireland (and the US, and India, and Singapore) are speaking English -- different dialects of English. And FWIW, many of the divergences between American and British English, such as dropping the 'r' at the end of syllables, are actually changes on the British side after the colonies were formed.

Not agreeing with the parent commenter, but the differences are much less trivial than you’re making them out to be. I used to live with a Scottish guy, and he had to make a considerable effort to be understood at all in America. If we were out and he wanted to say something to me privately, he’d just say it in his normal Scottish English, and nobody else would have a clue what he said. “Singlish” is also very different. I’ve travelled with friends to Singapore who absolutely could not communicate with Singlish speakers.

Oh, no, don't get me wrong. I moved to the UK over a decade ago, and when I first moved here people couldn't understand me. And even after having been here for a year I still occasionally ran into people that I just couldn't understand at all. Even once you get over the accent, there's just an endless list of things that have different names.

But you have but to drop yourself in Iceland or Denmark or Germany or France to realize how close all of our languages really are.

(b) has largely already come to an end. And yet still they come (though if you buy something from Amazon these days the money probably goes via their Luxembourg subsidiary, not the Irish one like it used to...)

Not just that, but there's a good pool of tech talent due to relaxed immigration laws and being an attractive destination and an English speaking country (for the most part).

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