Let’s start by dealing with the black and white elephant in the room: yes, Guinness really does taste better in Dublin. Ascertaining whether that’s just the placebo effect talking or a genuine phenomenon would require the supping of many more pints than we managed during our brief visit to the city, but one difference is more easily quantifiable: you’ll pay a lot more for a pint of the black stuff in Dublin than you would in, say, London, despite the brewery being in its centre.
Take into account Ireland’s ongoing recession, and you’d be forgiven for fearing that Dublin is on its knees. But even a cursory walk around the city – and you can walk almost anywhere thanks to its small size – reveals day- and nightlife in rude health. In fact, surrounded by shopping, eating and drinking in Dublin’s streets and bars, it’s almost impossible to detect the recession at all.
Such contradictory buoyancy is partly down to significant foreign investment, especially from the US, not least when it comes to the rapidly growing game industry here. As a result the city is bristling with tech talent, from Facebook and Google to PopCap, MMOG publisher Gala Networks and League Of Legends developer Riot Games – many persuaded by the pitches of Ireland’s Investment and Development Agency (IDA). The IDA’s aim is to attract foreign direct investment (FDI) across six key areas – one of which, digital media, covers game companies.
The Jameson distillery, founded 1780
“When Zynga were opening up their European headquarters here only a couple of weeks ago, one of the guys from California was here,” IDA chief executive officer Barry O’Leary proudly recalls. “He made the point that when they were still only about 30 people, our guy out in Mountain View was talking to them about internationalisation before they were even thinking about that future.”
Ireland’s low corporation tax rate of 12.5 per cent doesn’t hurt, of course, but the Zynga anecdote is evidence of the IDA’s new focus on smaller companies – which O’Leary places in the sub-€20 million turnover bracket.
“If you look back to 1990, one of the dominant players in foreign direct investment in Ireland was Fruit of the Loom T-shirts – they were the biggest multinational employer!” he laughs. “You couldn’t possibly do that business in Ireland today. But Intel were only breaking ground in their facility here in Ireland at that time – today they’ve invested over $7 billion. The reason I say this is that FDI evolves all the time, and it’s very important that we bring in new areas.”
But home-grown talent is of equal import, and IDA’s sister organisation Enterprise Ireland works to support indigenous companies such as development middleware specialist Havok, game personalisation start-up Swrve, and browser game developer and publisher Jolt Online, to grow and successfully export their products.