While 56% of American companies in Ireland foresee their workforce expanding over the next year, a similar number say that housing is the biggest obstacle to their growth.
The latest survey from the American Chamber of Commerce Ireland (AmCham) reveals that 40% of companies surveyed believe that housing is the number one challenge for Ireland to overcome for their operation to expand here.
At the same time, nearly 60% (59%) said that housing was the area of infrastructure development that requires investment most urgently from Government, beating out transport and connectivity (14%) and energy (14%).
Cost competitiveness was considered the biggest challenge for 19% of respondents, while 12% said it was skills shortage.
Despite this, 97% of companies that responded said that Ireland is “competitive” compared to other advanced global economies, while 45% said that it is “very or extremely competitive”.
Over half of the respondents (52%) said that a highly educated and skilled talent pool was Ireland’s number one competitive advantage.
Nine in ten of the companies surveyed said their corporate headquarters has a positive view of Ireland as an investment or growth location.
The American Chamber of Commerce Ireland is the collective voice of US companies
in Ireland and the leading international business organisation supporting the Transatlantic business
relationship.
Its members are the Irish operations of all the major US companies in every sector present here, Irish companies with operations in the United States and organisations with close linkages to US-Ireland trade and investment.