Key facts and figures:

• 1st for FDI and corporate tax regime (Global Innovation Survey)

• 1st destination globally for jobs by inward investment per capita (IBM 2010 Global Location Trends Report)

• 1st globally for most-highly employable graduates (European Commission Study 2010)

• 2nd most attractive country globally for FDI (National Irish Bank/fDi Intelligence Inward Investment Performance Monitor 2010)

• 3rd in Europe in terms of ease of doing business (World Bank

• 6th for GDP per capita ahead of the US (8th), France (14th), Singapore (19th) and the UK (21st) (The IMD World Competitiveness Yearbook 2010)

• 9th best place in the world in which to conduct business (World Bank Report 2010)

• 8 out of the top 10 ICT companies, 8 out of the top 10 pharmaceutical companies and 15 of the top 20 medical devices companies have operations in Ireland

• The value of Irish domiciled investment funds had reached an all high time of €964 billion as at the end of December 2010 – up nearly a third (29 per cent) on the same time last year from €748 billion. Some €914 billion worth of assets held in non Irish domiciled funds is serviced in Ireland (Central Bank)

• Nearly 1,000 multinational corporations have selected Ireland as their strategic European base

• The number of projects into Ireland increased by 15% in 2010, with a corresponding increase in the rate of job creation (National Irish Bank/fDi Intelligence Inward Investment Performance Monitor 2010)

• William Fry advise the largest portion of all current Irish-domiciled Exchange-Traded Funds (Lipper, 2010)