For Business

A series on “The Competitiveness Agenda 2026” forum. Part 1.

We were there

At the end of October I wrote that LatWest would be attending the Irish Latvian Chamber of Commerce (ILCC) forum “The Competitiveness Agenda 2026” in Riga. On 4 November we were there. I represented LatWest, took photographs and kept notes on what the speakers said. Those notes are now becoming a short series, and this first part is about the keynote speaker, Danny McCoy.

Irish readers will know him as the Chief Executive of Ibec, a role he has held since 2009, and as a familiar voice whenever government, employers and unions sit down together. For Latvian readers it is worth adding that he began as an economist at the Central Bank of Ireland and the ESRI, and in the mid-2000s spent around five years running the European Commission’s macroeconomic forecasting network. Hearing him in Riga, speaking to a mostly Latvian audience, was a rare opportunity.

In short. McCoy’s central argument was that Ireland grew because it was predictable, legally stable and able to attract the intangible assets of global companies, and that the same qualities will decide who wins in an age of security concerns and artificial intelligence. For Latvian businesses, and for Irish companies looking at the Baltics, that raises three questions: can Latvia sell its stability, can security be treated as a competitive advantage, and where will the gains from AI end up?

What struck me most was the end of the speech. The head of Ireland’s main employers’ body warned that the gains from AI may drain away from the companies using it. More on that below.

How Ireland tripled its economy

McCoy opened with the French saying plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose. He did not play down today’s uncertainty, but urged the audience to look at technology, AI included, with optimism: “we should be as optimistic as others urge us to be pessimistic.”

He then turned to the Irish experience. Over the past 12 years, he said, Ireland’s GDP has grown by 200%, in other words tripled, and no other economy in the world has managed that in the same period. He named four foundations:

• stable institutions;
• the rule of law;
• legislative flexibility;
• a place at the heart of the European project.

Most interesting was his account of how it happened. For years, many US multinationals held their patents and licences in Caribbean entities that often had little more than a registered address, yet booked enormous profits and paid almost no tax on them.

After the 2008 financial crisis, OECD countries agreed to curb these arrangements through the BEPS initiative (Base Erosion and Profit Shifting). The new rules required profits to be reported where a company has real staff and real activity. The multinationals needed a new home, and they looked to Europe.

The legal system made the choice. Common law allowed companies to work with new technologies, at that time cloud services, and to manage intangible assets: brands, patents, copyright and licences. In Europe, McCoy said, that meant a choice between three countries: Malta, the United Kingdom and Ireland.

From 2011 to 2014 the real contest was between Ireland and the UK. In 2015 Ireland took practically everything, and its GDP rose by almost 35% in a single year, exactly a year before the Brexit referendum.

One detail missing from many summaries is, in my view, the most important. McCoy pointed to the Scottish independence referendum in 2014. Even then it was clear that the UK was institutionally uncertain. Ireland was offering what matters to capital more than any tax rate: predictability.

This is where McCoy turned to Latvia. He said that Latvia, too, shows institutional consistency and has an educated society able to adapt to geopolitical change. That is no small compliment from the man who speaks for Irish business.

A note on the figures

Irish readers know that GDP is a peculiar measure here. The CSO first put 2015 growth at 7.8%, revised it to 26.3% in July 2016, and later revisions took it to 34.4%, which matches McCoy’s “almost 35%”. Paul Krugman called it “leprechaun economics”, and the name stuck.

Much of the jump came from Apple moving its intellectual property to an Irish subsidiary in early 2015, which is why Ireland has published modified gross national income, GNI*, since 2017. That year Irish GDP was 162% of GNI*, whereas across the EU GDP and national income are roughly the same. In other words, Irish GDP was about 62% higher than what actually stays in the country.

For a Latvian company sizing up the Irish market, the practical lesson is simple: look at GNI*, not GDP. GDP shows where global corporations hold their assets, not how much money Irish households have to spend.

None of this takes away from McCoy’s point; it helps explain it. Ireland did not build 35% more factories in one year. It became the place where global companies keep their intangible assets, and that is exactly what he went on to talk about.

When intellectual property is the oil

McCoy described Ireland as a “resource economy” in which intellectual property plays the role that oil plays elsewhere. His example was Botox: the world’s entire supply is made in Ireland. It is an example close to home for me. Botox is made at the Allergan plant in Westport, Co. Mayo, the county where I live and where LatWest works. It is AbbVie’s only Botox plant in the world, and its pre-tax profit reached 1.5 billion US dollars in 2022.

He then made what I think was the key point of the whole speech. Companies’ intangible value, their goodwill, brands, reputation and patents, used to be safely protected by property rights. Today the world is less predictable, and intellectual property and resources are being redistributed. So, in his view, competitiveness can no longer be measured only in productivity and costs: security and defence have become part of it.

In my view this also exposes Ireland’s own vulnerability. An economy built on intellectual property depends on the world respecting property rights. Oil has to be moved by tanker; a patent can be moved with a single legal decision.

From this came his sharpest line: Europe’s competitiveness and its security can no longer be separated; they are two sides of the same coin. Security means more than defence. It also means resilient food, financial, energy, water and cyber systems. He urged that defence spending on Europe’s eastern flank be seen as an investment in competitiveness, not just a cost.

Seen from Riga, this matters. For Latvians, security is everyday life on the EU’s border with Russia and Belarus, not a conference topic. If Europe starts treating resilience as part of competitiveness, then the experience gained living on that border becomes something Latvian businesses can sell, including to Irish partners.

McCoy was not simply upbeat about Europe. He reminded the room that Europe’s greatest asset is its huge single market and the prosperity of its people, but that businesses are held back by structurally high energy costs and heavy EU regulation in the digital, social and sustainability fields. He sees the answer in well-designed public–private partnership and a shift from restrictive bureaucracy to a flexible labour market. For Latvian firms, which feel energy prices and red tape very directly, that is not an abstract argument.

AI: who keeps the gains?

McCoy began his speech optimistic about AI, but ended with a warning, and that warning is what stayed with me most.

He argued that AI creates a problem of information asymmetry for capitalism. Markets work when buyers know what they are buying. This time, neither buyers nor the developers themselves can foresee the long-term consequences.

His second warning was more concrete. The efficiency gains from AI often do not stay in a company’s profits but flow to the owners of the platforms. As I understand it, a subscription is not expensive in itself, but competitors use the same tools, so the savings quickly turn into lower prices rather than higher profits. The lasting value builds up with the platform, which learns from users’ data, becomes harder to replace and can later set the prices. That is why, in McCoy’s view, business leaders need to talk openly with their staff about introducing it, so that people are not afraid for their pay and their jobs. His conclusion: only co-operation between employers and employees will give Europe real resilience.

The message carries weight because it comes from the head of an employers’ organisation, not a trade union leader. Ibec is the main employer voice in Irish social dialogue, so his view is practical rather than ideological. McCoy also stressed that Europe’s social model and its capacity to redistribute income will be a source of stability over the next decade. He contrasted it with growing inequality in the United States and urged Europe not to copy the US model blindly, but to build a new, balanced message of its own.

For me, this is where the Irish story and AI meet. Ireland won by becoming the place where intangible assets are held. In the age of AI those assets are algorithms, models and data. If they are “hosted” outside Europe, European companies become mere subscribers, and the gains go wherever the asset sits.

For any business, Irish or Latvian, that means one simple question before buying an AI tool: where will the value it saves end up? That is why McCoy talks about reskilling and a flexible labour market rather than job cuts.

What it means for Latvian and Irish businesses

McCoy himself compared Ireland and Latvia, and some of his parallels are worth looking at more closely.

Tax. McCoy noted that Latvia’s corporate income tax is 20%, while the effective rate for large multinationals in Ireland is 15%. One nuance is worth knowing for Irish partners: in Latvia the 20% is paid only on distributed profit, and reinvested profit is not taxed at all. Since 2026, companies owned only by individuals can also choose an alternative: 15% corporate income tax plus 6% personal income tax on dividends. For a growing company that reinvests its profits, the Latvian system is attractive, and Latvian firms should be telling their Irish partners about it.

People. Here the two countries go different ways. Ireland’s population is growing through migration. McCoy said that up to 25% of the population were not born in Ireland, and that Latvians have played a significant part in the growth of Ireland’s workforce. CSO data back him up: at the end of 2025, 2.8 million people were at work in Ireland, 19% more than in 2019, and 61% of the growth in employee numbers between 2019 and 2024 came from non-Irish nationals. McCoy acknowledged that this has created not only a tolerant and productive society, but also pressure on housing and infrastructure.

Latvia’s population is shrinking, and it does not attract immigration on anything like Ireland’s scale. It cannot solve labour shortages through migration as quickly, so productivity matters even more there than in Ireland. Where Ireland can use AI to complement a growing workforce, for Latvia it is a way to replace workers it does not have. That makes McCoy’s question about who keeps the gains from AI even more pressing for Latvia than for Ireland.

Takeaways. From this speech I noted four points for myself:

• Predictability is a product. Ireland did not win on a low tax rate alone, but by being predictable when the UK was not. Latvia should protect that advantage and sell it.
• Security is competitiveness. Resilience in energy, food, cyber security and logistics is becoming a service in demand across Europe, and Latvia knows it from the inside.
• The gains from AI should stay in the business. Before buying, work out what will stay with you. If every competitor uses the same tools, the savings quickly turn into lower prices for customers rather than higher profits. If your processes and data are tied to one platform, it can later dictate prices and terms. Lasting advantage comes only when the tool is combined with what is yours alone: your people’s creativity, your knowledge of your customers and your experience. AI is a tool that helps turn a person’s idea into reality faster and more precisely, but the idea that sets a company apart still comes from a person. So talk to your staff before you introduce it, not after.
• Don’t copy Ireland, use it. A large Latvian community already lives in Ireland and knows how business works in both countries. It is a ready-made bridge for Latvian companies entering the Irish market, and for Irish companies looking towards the Baltics, and it is exactly the kind of co-operation LatWest promotes together with the ILCC.

In the next part

Danny McCoy set out the questions that matter for Latvian business today. In the forum’s panel discussions, speakers answered them from a Latvian point of view. The next parts of this series will cover trade and economic security, investment, energy, and AI and skills.

Skarleta Lyons, LatWest

Sources

• Ibec: Danny McCoy
• IPUT: Danny McCoy
• Wikipedia: Leprechaun economics
• RTÉ: Allergan’s Westport Botox plant makes $1.5 billion profit
• CSO: Business in Ireland 2025 – Labour Supply
• Ministry of Finance of Latvia: Tax system 2026

On 4 November, the international business forum “The Competitiveness Agenda 2026” will take place at the Radisson Blu Daugava Hotel in Riga. It is organised by the Irish Latvian Chamber of Commerce (ILCC) together with the Swiss, Danish, Finnish and Canadian chambers of commerce in Latvia, the Polish-Latvian Chamber of Commerce and Industry, the Arab Latvian and Latvian Turkish chambers of commerce, and the French Business Club. The keynote speaker will be Danny McCoy, Chief Executive of Ibec, Ireland’s largest business and employers’ organisation. LatWest, an organisation building links between Latvia and Ireland from the West of Ireland, will also be there.

The forum’s title asks a question: “Can Europe Still Compete? And Where Does Latvia Fit In?” It sounds like high politics. Read it as a business owner, though, and it becomes very personal. Where does my company fit in? Who will need what I do in five years’ time, if supply chains, energy prices and markets no longer behave the way the business plan assumed? That is exactly why the ILCC is inviting Latvian businesses to take this opportunity seriously: to hear, in a single day, what business leaders, policymakers, investors and international experts think about these questions, and to discover new opportunities and contacts.

“Wait and see” is no longer a good plan. For the past few years, many business owners have lived with the feeling that they just need to hold on until things settle down. It looks like they won’t. That is no reason to give up, but it is a reason to ask different questions. Not when it will be safer, but who makes me stronger. Where, and what, could be useful to me?

The forum’s four themes show this well:

• Trade and economic security decide whether the shipment arrives on time;
• Investment and growth decide whether a small company can reach beyond its own country;
• Energy decides what it costs to make things;
• Artificial intelligence and skills decide how much each person on the team can get done.

These are not abstract topics for the walls of a conference hall. Each of them is a figure in somebody’s budget.

Why listen to Ireland? The keynote speaker, Danny McCoy, has led Ibec since 2009. It is Ireland’s largest business representative organisation and one of the largest in Europe. Ibec represents companies of every size across all sectors of the economy, both home-grown and international, and speaks for their interests in discussions with the Irish government. Before that, Danny McCoy worked as an economist at the Central Bank of Ireland and the Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI), and advised the European Commission and the OECD. The Irish Times has named him among the 50 people who run Ireland.

It is rare to hear, in Riga, someone who speaks for Irish business every day and knows how the country thinks from the inside.

Ireland’s story is more familiar to Latvians than it might seem. As recently as the 1980s, it was a country young people left in search of work. A small home market, a place on the edge of Europe, no great natural resources. Ireland didn’t win by being big. It became not only a place to start a successful business, but also a country where foreign companies find it worthwhile to work and invest. Ireland is open to investment, it speaks English, it has a well-educated workforce, and it has a diaspora spread across the world that still feels it belongs.

Ireland is no fairy tale. It has serious problems of its own, such as a housing shortage and a heavy reliance on multinational corporations. That is exactly why it is worth listening. An honest account of what worked, and of the challenges still to be faced, gives a small-country business owner far more than a speech full of generalities.

A Latvian company coming to Ireland does not have to start from zero. A large Latvian community already lives and works there and knows both countries from the inside. In practice, this means Ireland already has people who speak both languages, understand both the Latvian and the Irish way of working, and could become a company’s first employees, partners or customers.

In this, LatWest complements the work of its partner, the ILCC. The ILCC builds business links between companies in both countries, while LatWest knows the people and local life in the West of Ireland well. You can find out more about our work at latwest.ie.

Speakers and participants with international experience. The forum is organised by foreign business communities already working in Latvia, and the Austrian and Japanese embassies are also involved. That means the room will be full of people who have already done what many Latvian businesses are only thinking about: entered a foreign market, adapted to it and established themselves there.

Addresses will be given by Ibec’s Chief Executive, Mr McCoy; Ivars Ījabs, Member of the European Parliament (keynote response, remote); and Jurģis Miezainis, Parliamentary Secretary at the Ministry of Economics of the Republic of Latvia.

The forum will be moderated by Ansis Bogustovs. The four panel discussions will include:

• Trade and economic security: moderator Jūlija Bērziņa (Chairperson of the Board, Riga RoPax Terminal), Nicolas Lepage (Canada’s Regional Senior Trade Commissioner for the Baltics), Deputy Mayor of Riga Māris Sprindžuks, and Artis Dekšenieks (DHL Express Latvia);
• Investment and growth: Sibilla Strupule (investment-readiness adviser and exited founder), investor and supervisory board member Sandra Aile, and Nina Lubbe (Project Coordinator, JETRO – Japan External Trade Organization);
• Energy: moderator Ansis Bogustovs, Ivars Zariņš (Executive Director, Latvian Association of Power Engineers and Energy Constructors), Mārtiņš Vancāns (Head of Enefit in Latvia), and Reinhold Schneider (CEO, SCHWENK Northern Europe; Chairperson, FICIL);
• Artificial intelligence and skills: Eitaro Kojima (Director General, JETRO Warsaw), Pierre-Luc Stephane Brouilliez (Procurement Manager, Lexel Fabrika / Schneider Electric), and Guntis Kalniņš (AI Master Lab; Board member, Latvian Artificial Intelligence Association).

The programme includes coffee breaks and another 45 minutes for conversation at the end of the forum. The most valuable part of the day may well happen there rather than in the panels.

We will be there. If you are thinking about doing business in Ireland or working with Irish partners, or simply want to understand what opportunities Ireland could open up for your company, come and take part!

Practical information

• When: 4 November 2026, 09:00–15:00 (registration from 08:00)
• What: international business forum “The Competitiveness Agenda 2026”
• Where: Radisson Blu Daugava Hotel, Kuģu iela 24, Riga
• Fee: €65 for members of the organising chambers, €80 for others (incl. VAT). Places are limited.
• Registration: icham.lv/activity/the-competitiveness-agenda-2026, chamber@icham.lv, +371 29113900

Ireland and Latvia are two small, open EU economies that already trade in both directions. In 2025, goods worth about US$245 million moved between the two countries: US$129.5 million from Latvia to Ireland and US$115.3 million from Ireland to Latvia.

Latvia → Ireland. Wood and wood products are Latvia’s No. 1 export to Ireland (US$30.9 million), followed by cereals (US$15.8 million) and animal feed (US$15.7 million). Mineral fuels, aluminium and plastics complete the top six.

Ireland → Latvia. Drinks and medicines lead the way east: beverages and spirits (US$38.9 million) and pharmaceuticals (US$38.5 million) together make up two thirds of Irish goods sold to Latvia. Machinery, perfumes and cosmetics, and bakery and cereal foods follow.

A bridge of people. According to Census 2022, 18,300 Latvian citizens live in Ireland. Both countries are in the EU single market and the euro area, so there are no customs duties and no currency risk, and Ryanair and airBaltic fly directly between Dublin and Riga in about three hours.

Looking for partners on the other side? See who to contact or write to us.

Prefabricated timber homes are made in a factory, shipped as panels or complete modules, and put together on site in a fraction of the usual time. Latvia is one of the world leaders: in 2024 its prefab wooden building exports reached €47 million, 3rd in the world per capita and 8th by total value. Together with Estonia and Lithuania, the Baltic states lead world prefab exports.

How it works. House plans are adapted to the client and to Irish building regulations; walls, roofs or whole modules are built indoors in the factory, with controlled quality and less waste; the elements travel by lorry and ferry from Latvia to the Irish site; and a crew sets the house onto a prepared foundation and connects services.

Two types of homes. Panelised (flat-pack) homes arrive as insulated wall, floor and roof elements that are craned into place, with interior finishing done on site. Volumetric modules are complete rooms with windows, wiring and fittings, built in the factory and lifted onto the foundations – the fastest route to a finished home.

Where Latvian prefabs go. The main markets are the Netherlands (20.8%), Norway (17.2%), Iceland (12.4%) and Germany (11.2%). Over a third goes to Norway, Iceland and Sweden, so the houses are proven in tough northern climates.

Why now, in Ireland. The government aims for 300,000 new homes by 2030, and at least 25% of new social and affordable homes are to use modern methods of construction. In 2025, 61% of new Irish dwellings were already timber frame (compared with 5% in 1992), and prefab construction can save up to 8 weeks per project, with fewer weather delays.

One example of a Latvian manufacturer is MLK Houses. Buyers should check with each manufacturer that their homes meet Irish building regulations and NSAI Agrément certification, which is essential for the Irish market.

Interested in Latvian prefabricated homes? See who to contact or write to us, and we will be glad to help with introductions.

Latvia is a forest nation: about half of the country is covered by forest, and the forest sector earns one in every five euros of Latvian exports and around 30% of all manufacturing output. Latvian timber products are bought in 107 countries.

In 2025, forest-industry exports reached €3.44 billion. That is 1.6% less than in 2024, but sawn timber (+€41 million) and plywood (+€15 million) grew, while raw roundwood exports fell as the industry moves towards higher-value products. The biggest markets are the United Kingdom, Germany and Denmark.

Wood is already Latvia’s No. 1 export to Ireland. In 2025, wood and wood products made up US$30.9 million of the US$129.5 million in Latvian goods sent to Ireland – 24% of the total, ahead of cereals and animal feed. Furniture and prefabricated buildings added another US$4.1 million.

The major players include the state forest manager Latvijas valsts meži, birch plywood maker Latvijas Finieris, Kronospan Riga (wood-based panels), Latgran (wood pellets) and the sawmill Gaujas Koks. Latvia produces sawn timber, birch plywood, wood-based panels and cross-laminated timber (CLT), all of which are used in construction.

Are you an Irish company looking for timber or wood-based building products? See who to contact or write to us, and we will be glad to help with introductions.

Who are the biggest players in the Latvian economy? The TOP 101 · 2026 edition ranks the country’s 101 largest businesses by enterprise value. Swedbank Baltics leads with €6.2 billion, followed by the energy company Latvenergo (€5.0 billion) and the state forest company Latvijas valsts meži (€2.1 billion).

The rest of the top ten shows the shape of the economy: network equipment maker Mikrotīkls, retailer Maxima Latvija, plywood producer Latvijas Finieris, three banks (Citadele, SEB and Swedbank), mobile operator LMT and power grid operator Augstsprieguma tīkls.

It takes €74 million to make the list, and 12 companies are newcomers or returnees this year. The biggest risers are UPB (+94%) and Balticovo (+71%); the biggest fallers are Optibet (−45%) and Pulsar Optics (−34%).

For Irish businesses looking at Latvia, the list is a useful map of the key sectors: finance, energy, forestry and wood, manufacturing, retail and telecoms. Looking for contacts? See who to contact or write to us.

This Thursday and Friday, 15 and 16 October, Castlebar hosts the West X West conference. Its idea is simple, yet rarely seen at large conferences: business and culture should not be kept apart. Company founders, investors, musicians, writers and artists will meet in one place, and culture will be at the heart of the conference rather than just evening entertainment.

The conference is the brainchild of Castlebar native Derek O'Doherty. He spent many years in international finance in London, Sydney and New York, and later, at Enterprise Ireland, helped Irish companies attract investors. His experience shows that people who meet through both business and culture build stronger and longer-lasting connections than through business talks alone.

More than 50 speakers, 48 Irish founders, 14 investors and around 300 delegates will take part. In the evenings, 18 musicians and bands will perform around the town. In one of the main sessions, the heads of the Galway International Arts Festival and Connacht Rugby will discuss how culture and sport have become the West of Ireland's strongest economic argument.

One cannot exist without the other. Business and culture have always been connected. Companies support festivals, concerts and books, and culture creates the kind of place where people want to live, work and invest. Yet for a long time hardly anyone highlighted this connection or used it deliberately. Now it is becoming a foundation for the development of the West of Ireland.

LatWest has been working this way for years. At the Latvian regional days in Ireland, which we organised together with the Irish Latvian Chamber of Commerce, Latvian entrepreneurs met Mayo businesses and local authorities, while Latvian music and songs filled the same events. Culture helps people get to know and trust each other; business helps the cooperation continue.

An invitation to Latvian entrepreneurs in Ireland. Many Latvian entrepreneurs work in Ireland: craftspeople, service providers, couriers, builders, producers. Many work on their own and often do not know about each other. That is why we want to reach out to Latvian entrepreneurs in Ireland, so that together we can:

• build our own network of contacts;
• share experience of starting and growing a business in Ireland;
• take part in Irish cultural life and local events;
• find partners in both Ireland and Latvia.

Here in the For Business section you will find stories of Latvian entrepreneurs, who to contact and opportunities for cooperation between Ireland and Latvia.

You can also add your business yourself to the list of organisations on our „Latvians Worldwide” page, so that other Latvians can find you: latwest.ie/pasaule/en/kopienas

If you would like to share your experience or are looking for partners, write to us. Together we can achieve more.

Monta Glazere, a Latvian living in Claremorris, is the founder of Nature’s Gifts, a small Irish business. She makes handmade natural soaps, soy and coconut wax melts, bath bombs, soy candles and gift sets such as soap bouquets, using plant-based ingredients and environmentally friendly materials wherever she can.

Roots in Latvia. Her love of nature goes back to childhood. In Latvia, Monta’s mother taught her how plants and trees can heal, and that knowledge still fascinates her. Through her products she now passes some of it on to her customers.

Why her own business. Monta chose self-employment because she wanted the freedom to build something meaningful on her own terms. A passion became a job that lets her work flexibly, balance family life with the business and stay true to her values.

Support. South West Mayo Development Company was a great help at the start. Monta completed the Start Your Own Business course, and with their guidance she wrote her business plan and gathered all the documents needed to set up Nature’s Gifts officially.

Challenges. For a small handmade brand, the hardest part is getting known: growing on social media and reaching new customers takes time. On top of that, she handles everything herself, from production to marketing. Each challenge, though, has taught her something new and helped her improve the business step by step.

Highlight. In October 2025, Nature’s Gifts was shortlisted as a finalist in the Green Game-Changer category of the Mayo Business Awards, run by the Local Enterprise Office. The other finalists in the category were long-established businesses, so the nomination was a real boost.

Monta’s three tips for anyone starting out:

1. Start small — do your research and keep your costs low at the beginning.
2. Stay consistent — small steps every day can grow into something amazing.
3. Trust your own vision — focus on quality, listen to your customers and don’t hesitate to ask for advice or support.