Irish Indigenous Companies

There was a substantial improvement in the growth of indigenous manufacturing in the late 1980s and early 1990s, but its performance became unsatisfactory later. In indigenous services, there was also a significant improvement and the trends mostly remained better for longer. New industrial policy measures were partly responsible for the improvement. There was success at first in promoting the growth of SMEs, particularly in the high-tech and medium–high-tech sectors, and in enhancing R&D and innovation. However, the growth momentum tended to weaken later as many successful companies were taken over by foreign MNCs. The indigenous contribution to net foreign earnings was much greater than it appeared to be when seen in terms of exports, and this was especially true for indigenous services, but the indigenous contribution to growth over the whole course of the boom was still significantly less than that of foreign-owned companies. However, the indigenous contribution was particularly important in the late 1980s and again in the 2000s. The improvement in indigenous industry was probably the key change that started the boom in the late 1980s.