New Visa Schemes bring in €10.5m of additional investment

This week we learned that in the past year new visa schemes have brought in €10.5m of investment with the expected creation or retention of 270 jobs, covering the ICT, recycling and financial services area (see details here). I think we could be doing better.

In June 2011, I proposed the introduction of a new Enterprise and Investment Visa scheme along the lines of a scheme adopted in the UK. Work on such an idea was already underway and in January 2012 the Government announced the introduction of two major new immigration initiatives: The Immigrant Investor Programme and The Start-up Entrepreneur Programme. Both aim at facilitating (non EEA) migrant entrepreneurs and investors who want to invest either their time or money here in Ireland for the purpose of saving or creating jobs. The schemes were opened up for applications in April 2012.

Following on from this I raised the possibility of introducing a technology visa scheme: a specific visa for people working in the tech sector given the skills shortage in the country and the potential for spin off jobs from this growing industry. (You can watch my contribution on tech visas here and read Parliamentary Questions to the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation here, and the Minister for Justice, here).

A specific technology visa has yet to be introduced but in the Action Plan for Jobs for 2013, steps were made by the government towards making it easier for people with relevant technology skills to come and work in Ireland (see here).

Since April 2012, 27 applications for the Start-up Entrepreneur Programme and 10 Applications for the Immigrant Investor Programme have been received. 14 applications have been approved under the Start-up Entrepreneur Programme, 7 applications have been refused, 1 applicant gained an alternative status and the remainder are still under consideration. 3 applications have been approved under the Immigrant Investor Programme and the remainder are still under consideration.

To date the total investment committed under both Programmes is of the order of €10.5 million and is projected that 270 jobs will be retained or created on foot of these investments in the ICT, recycling and financial services area.  In addition two organisations, one educational and the other a charity, are receiving substantial endowments to support and develop their activities.

These numbers are positive and demonstrate the benefits of a more targeted and competitive visa regime. That said, the numbers could be a lot better if we dedicated more resources to the schemes and made them more competitive. This would involve quicker processing times, lower financial thresholds for participants and more rigorous approach to potential investors and start-up companies abroad.

Ireland is one of the most stable European economies to invest in at present. It also has the best ecosystem in Europe for starting a high tech company. We need to be more ambitious with  our visa strategies if we are to take advantage of this. While €10.5m and the approval of 14 start-up visas is welcome and good, we could be doing a lot better.