THE PERCEPTION in some US business circles that the Lisbon Treaty referendum result reflected a reduction in Ireland's commitment to the European Union was an "additional factor" that the Government had to contend with it in its efforts to attract investment, Taoiseach Brian Cowen said yesterday.
He was responding to comments made by former taoiseach John Bruton, now head of the EU delegation in Washington, who expressed concern this week that potential US investors in Ireland might be inhibited by fears that the country was turning away from the EU.
Speaking to reporters in New York, Mr Cowen said: "We have to contend with that perception now as an additional factor. As you know, our decision has created some uncertainty as to what direction Europe will go in generally. But obviously our industrial promotion agencies would be making it very clear that we see our strategy in Ireland, both economic and political, as being at the heart of Europe.
"The integration of the European economy, the enlargement of the EU and the establishment of a single market, indeed a single currency, in that Union area has provided Ireland with the impetus and the means by which we have gained so much economic progress in the last 10 years, and created so much jobs.
"Our foreign direct investment in Ireland is five times the OECD average and the reason for that, in the main, is because we provide a platform to the European market. We're English-speaking and in the euro currency area. These are important factors and the No vote, I suppose, can cause some confusion as to what our overall intentions are, but as I say, we are analysing that result as we speak,"
Mr Cowen held what he described as "a very good" meeting with the editorial board of the Rupert Murdoch-owned Wall Street Journal. The paper welcomed Ireland's rejection of Lisbon as "a blow for democracy" in Europe.
