Special visas to target BRIC

THE Government couldintroduce special visas aimed at allowing high net-worth overseas entre-preneurs establish Irish bases before the end of the year.

The policy, which is already well used in the US and Canada, has been put forward by Fine Gael TD for Dublin South Peter Mathews, who sees it as a way of creating more jobs and boosting exports to emerging markets.

He claims the policy could be fast-tracked by the autumn, with IDA Ireland then possibly headhunting specific individuals or companies within the BRIC countries (Brazil, Russia, India and China).

Mr Mathews also claims the idea has been welcomed in the higher echelons of Government, with Jobs Minister Richard Bruton and Finance Minister Michael Noonan both in favour.

“The lion’s share of our exports go to the US, the UK and the eurozone,” Mr Mathews said. “All these regions have major economic difficulties at present and face years of austerity, economic stagnation or low growth.

“However, overall, the world economy is still growing. Brazil, Russia, India and China continue to power ahead, while other countries are in decline. We, in Ireland, need to diversify our trade to ensure that our economy grows and that we can create new jobs. We need to turbo-charge our exports to the BRIC countries.

“Job creation will be key to our recovery. The best way to achieve this is to prioritise trade with econ-omies experiencing rapid and sustained growth. An entrepreneur visa would be an important step in establishing a job creation environment.”

Mr Mathews said the plan would be for the entrepreneurs to come here on five-to-ten-year visas and use Ireland as a base from which to export to mainland Europe; and, in turn, open avenues for Irish companies to export more to BRIC nations.

He said safeguards could be introduced to ensure that “only entrepreneurs prepared to invest significant sums of money in an enterprise established to generate significant employment in Ireland will qualify for the visa”.