Dublin’s virtues as a tech hub are "getting lost" in the debate over its low rate of corporation tax, the CEO of a firm that has opened an office there has warned.
Research tool Qualtrics opened its international headquarters in the Republic of Ireland capital late last month at an event hosted by Taoiseach Enda Kenny, announcing 150 jobs over the next three years.
The city has been the subject of controversy recently due to its 12.5% corporation tax rate, much lower than the UK’s and other European countries’ 23%.
Facebook recently appeared to have used its Dublin base to avoid paying tax in the UK on sales of £223m, while this month it emerged that Google – also based in Dublin – paid just £34m in corporation tax on British sales of £3.1bn.
But co-founder and chief executive of Qualtrics, Ryan Smith, claimed the US giants’ presence in the city is a sign of its burgeoning tech scene, rather than its attractive tax rate.
"Dublin is pretty hot but it’s getting lost in a lot of the tax structure questions," he said. "If these big companies weren’t being successful then no-one would move there. Success breeds success."
The Utah-based business opted for Dublin after considering other European cities such as London, which the Silicon Valley file-sharing firm, Box, chose as its European headquarters this month.
And Smith said one of the chief advantages of the Irish capital was how easy it was to set up shop there.
"We went into Dublin and said what we’d need and it was all set up quickly," he said. "We decided we wanted to open up and in three weeks we had internet, a building, a landing team over there and apartments ready.
"They want to make it frictionless."
He added that the tech scene is expanding at a similar pace to Utah’s, with the Irish government’s focus on using assets such as its startup scene to attract business.
The survey technology company will focus on Dublin before expanding to potentially around five more European and APAC cities, said Smith, who wants the firm to reach a point where up to 40% of its revenue comes from abroad.
"We’re a long way away from that," he admitted.
Taoiseach Kenny recently said Ireland would not increase its corporation tax upon its exit from the bailout fund in December, an option understood to be under consideration in Germany as a way for Ireland to repay its debts.
