AMC Blog - Lycée Mona Ozouf de Ploërmel

After the colonisation of Ireland by Anglo-normands, a lot of castles where built in Ireland. Theses castles are starting to be bought by American billionaires, like the CEO of Meta, Marc Zuckerberg. We are then going to wonder how the tech giants have such a huge power on Ireland and how that dependence is received by Irish people. We will answer this question by showing on the first hand how tech giant need Ireland, then on the second hand how Ireland need tech giants and on the third hand the opinion of Irish people about Ireland dependence to tech giants.

Firstly, tech giants like Meta need Ireland. Indeed, Ireland had an “important role” in Meta’s growth for example.(doc.B) Mostly for the low taxes rate, the English-speaking workforce and the easy access to E.U market. From 1981 to 2003 the taxes for companies exporting goods was 10 percent in Ireland when the average European taxes was 32 percent. Then in 2003 it went to 12.5 percent of general taxes. A loophole in Ireland started and the U.S companies avoided taxes because of it until 2015 for new companies and 2020 for existing companies.(doc.C) The companies also need Ireland castles for multiple reasons : to create a romantic party and impressing billionaire friends, because of the “privacy & security” Ireland offers, for the status in the society castles offer “trendy” and prestige showing, and because it is “ignited by the history and heritage of a particular property”.(doc.A)

Secondly, Ireland needs the giants tech companies. Mostly because companies bring a lot of money from the taxes they pay, it is part of Ireland income. The castles bought by billionaires also give them money. Because of that income being an important part of their general income, they became dependant to tech giants. That brought Ireland to pander America in intent to keep these tech giants in Ireland, because if these companies go elsewhere Ireland will not receive as much money as before.

Thirdly, Irish people mostly receive this dependence as a bad news. About the castles bought by billionaires, Irish people think they want to cut off the land and say these places can’t become “billionaire ideals”.(doc.A) About the dependence regarding money, Irish find the fact that Ireland is pandering America to keep these companies in Ireland a bit humiliating.(doc.C) So they think the fact that they are owning castles plus the fact that they made Ireland dependent to them gave these companies too much power on Ireland.(doc.D) But some Irish are supporting tech giants in Ireland, saying that they could have a positive impact on Ireland and these castles only if “they engage properly with the authorities”.(doc.A)

In conclusion, tech giants have such a huge power on Ireland because of the income they give to Ireland, even if they need Ireland themselves. Irish people mostly see that dependence in a negative light but some of them find positive aspects in that.