Tax was a huge factor in drawing some of the big names but the double-Irish (the worst aspect of tax avoidance) had been phased out. Corporate tax is 12.5% which is lower than the majority of EU countries [1] but the existing ecosystem of companies has also helped create an attractive labour pool. If it's purely tax everyone would move to Hungary (9%).
1: https://taxfoundation.org/2021-corporate-tax-rates-in-europe...
Like he said, there are places with tax rates below Ireland (eg. Hungary, Bulgaria). Taxes are a significant aspect but it's a combination of things.
Is there a handy list of such countries?
(I'm genuinely curious.)
English documentation is customarily recognized throughout the EU.
https://www.ef.com/wwen/epi/about-epi/faq/
> What is the methodology behind index?
> The EF EPI calculates a country’s/region's average adult English skill level using data from three different versions of the EF SET. Two versions are open to any Internet user for free. The third is an online placement test used by EF during the enrollment process for English courses.
> In order to calculate a country’s EF EPI score, each test score was normalized to obtain the percentage of correct answers for that test. All the scores for a country/region were then averaged across the three tests, giving equal weight to each test. Regional and global averages were weighted by the populations of each country/region within each region.
People who don't know english in the first place won't have any reason for taking those tests.