Amount invested by foreign firms falls

IRELAND’S attractiveness to foreign business investors is continuing to slip in the inward investment pecking order.

Figures issued by the Central Statistics Office show that at the end of 2004, foreign multinationals had €171.8 billion invested here against €176.5bn at the end of 2003.

Most of that loss is accounted for by repatriation of dividends after relaxation of repatriation of profit laws introduced in the US by President George W Bush.