Michael Lohan

All of those elements still exist and are required because companies are future-focused.

They're future-focused in terms of growth, they're future-focused in terms of product and services.

and that's where we will have our conversations yes we have to be conscious of the overarching geopolitical environment but ultimately um companies will look will look to the future and look to to actually see how they can continue to trade internationally how they can have the best products and services and indeed the best workforce globally to support their business needs

Well, you're correct.

We had a record year last year.

And I think if you put that in the backdrop of the year that was 2025, it's an outstanding performance to actually deliver a record year from an FDI perspective.

And just to put that in context, we had a 36 percent uplift year on year in 2025 across all territories, you know, across all territories, across the globe.

and what really was impactful on that is that maybe i'll just speak to the three areas first of all first-time investments into ireland continue to remain strong so 25 of our other investments are almost 80 investments or first-time investments into ireland the second area was innovation and r d really strong 2.5 billion supported last year through the ida in terms of r d investments

And the third area was a real focus on transformation and upskilling of the workforce.

We supported almost 34,000 people in the Irish workforce to be upskilled last year.

So we're seeing companies continue to be that future focus.

And just on announcements, just last Friday, actually, we had an announcement with Qualcomm actually expanding their operations in England.

in Ireland, and that's on semiconductor design.

So yes, investments continues, announcements continues, but I think companies are also very conscious of the world in which we now reside.

I think the year ahead is going to continue to be hyper-competitive.

I think it's going to continue to bring challenges as we go forward.

And I think as it starts, I think we're going to continue to see that.

And I think what we're seeing is that the pace of change, the pace of innovation is continuing.

And we're going to have to continue to adapt and be agile because the world has certainly the pace of both from a geopolitical perspective and a technology perspective

continues.