Irish hopes of getting more foreign investment could be put at risk by the national shortage of houses. That is according to jobs minister Richard Bruton, who says Ireland will struggle to attract foreign companies if there are not enough places for workers to live.
The minister has published a new policy which says other countries are becoming better at securing foreign investment - and that Ireland needs to do more.
The plan says the the 12.5% corporation tax rate remains central to Ireland's offering and that changes to the international tax system "offer challenges as well as opportunities for Ireland to compete strongly in this area".
Mr Bruton requested IDA Ireland to prepare a new strategy on multinational investment in Ireland to 2020 - following on from their previous strategy which runs to 2014.
It outlines a series of targets for jobs, investments and regions and how they will be delivered.
The policy statement of the report, published today, finds that competition for mobile multinational investment has increased dramatically in recent years and that many more countries now possess the basic conditions to attract investments.
Its key finding is that in order to compete effectively for mobile investment, Ireland must not only maintain high performance and compete strongly in traditional areas like tax and cost competitiveness, but crucially differentiate itself in other ways.
It finds that our talent pool, technology sector and attractive locations for investment must all be showcased.
But Mr Bruton says regional areas in particular could be badly hit if there is no new housing.
