US firms see us at heart of Europe

I BELIEVE the recent call by the American Chamber of Commerce in Ireland for a ‘yes’ vote in the EU Reform Treaty referendum is the most significant development to date in the context of this campaign.

The call for a ‘yes’ vote was made by Paul Rellis, the chamber president who is also managing director of Microsoft Ireland.

American companies employ more than 100,000 Irish people directly and we should not forget that tens of thousands of Irish workers are indirectly dependent on US multinationals continuing to operate in our country. Those based in Ireland include giants such as Oracle, Hewlett Packard, Dell, Intel, IBM, to name but a few. US companies here generate a massive 40% of all our corporation tax receipts.