At a workshop hosted today by the Irish Medical Devices Association (IMDA) and IDA Ireland, 40 leaders from the medical technology industry discussed Ireland’s potential to become a leader in this space.
IMDA director Sharon Higgins, speaking at the workshop, said Ireland was already a world leader in medical technology manufacturing as well as R&D, with many of the world’s top companies currently locating major operations here.
Higgins added that the potential for growth exists because we must and are able to move beyond manufacturing: “We now need to broaden our appeal and attract non-manufacturing operations to the country.
“There is the potential for many medical technology manufacturing companies to locate major global business centres (GBCs) on their Irish sites.”
The workshop took the example of Cook Ireland as a case study to demonstrate this point. The company is operating significant parts of its Global Business Services activity out of Ireland, managing markets throughout Europe, the Middle East and Africa.
“Ireland’s highly-skilled workforce and low-risk, low-tax business environment has given us an excellent track record as a location for global business centres in other sectors, particularly ICT,” Higgins added.
“Many high-tech companies report that the innovation and flexibility of their Irish services centres have become key to their growth. We need to apply this knowledge and experience to the medical technology sector.”
By Marie Boran
