Ireland will continue to be seen as a good place for investment by US firms with operations here regardless of whether or not tariffs are imposed on the EU by the US president Donald Trump, a new survey by the American Chamber shows.

This survey comes ahead of the start of the American Chamber Global Business Conference in Croke Park on Wednesday. It is being organised by the American Chamber of Commerce Ireland.

Of the American Chamber members surveyed, 90% reported that their corporate headquarters holds a positive view of Ireland for investment. A further 80% also said they would continue to have a positive view of Ireland as an investment location if tariffs were imposed by the US on the EU.

In addition, 63% of members said that Ireland’s high-skilled talent pool is its main advantage which led them to invest here. However, 64% identified a skills gap particularly in the areas of digital and data, engineering, as well machine learning and AI.

Nearly all of those surveyed, 94%, said Ireland’s position as a regulatory hub within the EU is important to Ireland becoming a leader in digital and AI with 60% of those saying this is extremely or very important to their company.

Similarly, 96% of respondents said EU investment in AI is important to ensuring Ireland remains a destination of choice for investment.

Despite these positive views, Ireland’s capacity constraints remain a challenge for companies looking to expand in Ireland. Housing supply was identified as the key issue by 34% of respondents while cost competitiveness was cited by 28% and skills shortages cited by 13%.

Paul Sweetman, chief executive of American Chamber, said as Ireland looks to grow inward investment and enhance the US-Ireland relationship, “we must focus on addressing the challenges and opportunities that currently exist for business and talent, particularly housing, infrastructure and cost-competitiveness”.

Enhancing research and development tax incentives was also noted as a challenge by 11% of respondents.

All American Chamber members surveyed said the security of Ireland’s energy grid was an important factor to maintaining US investment in Ireland.

Mr Sweetman added there are 210,000 people employed directly in Ireland by more than 970 US multinationals and the country has also “become a strategic hub for global decision-makers in major American corporations”.

“I am confident and optimistic that this relationship will continue to grow to the benefit of everyone, on both sides of the Atlantic,” Mr Sweetman said.

Ireland is now the sixth largest investor in the US globally with around 120,000 people directly employed by Irish companies across all 50 US States. Enterprise Ireland client exports to the US in 2023 totalled €5.9bn.

The American Chamber conference in Croke Park comes amid rising trade tensions emanating out of the US where president Trump has been announcing plans to implement tariffs on a range of items as well as broad tariffs on some of the country’s closest trading partners.