OECD report puts foreign investment spotlight on Ireland ahead of US election

Democratic presidential candidate former vice president Joe Biden appears on a "Zoom with Oprah Winfrey" virtual show. Picture: AP

An OECD report showing that Ireland was the major recipient of foreign direct investment flows, ahead of China, the US, and Luxembourg even as the Covid-19 economic crisis flared, has put the country back in the spotlight ahead of the US election.

The role of Ireland in attracting an outsized share of the world's FDI has long attracted criticism from US and EU politicians, and US president Donald Trump has repeatedly criticised the number of jobs in Ireland created by US multinationals.