The number of jobs created by foreign direct investment last year increased by 56%, new figures from Ernst & Young reveal.
The auditors say that 6,300 jobs were created in Ireland in 2008, compared with just over 4,000 the previous year.
The firm's Country Attractiveness Survey for 2008 also lists Ireland as ninth overall in terms of its position in the top 15 most attractive destinations for inward investment in Europe.
A total of 108 FDI projects were announced here in 2008, up 35% on the 80 announced the previous year. The largest investor in Ireland remained the US with 61 projects. It was followed by 20 UK investments, five German investments and three French investments.
Key areas of investment included business services, software, scientific instruments, electronics, pharmaceuticals, insurance and pensions and financial intermediary services.
Ernst & Young says that Ireland's attractiveness as a FDI location was in strong contrast to overall European figures which showed that inward investment in Europe was flat in 2008. It said this demonstrated the global recession's toll on investment projects in the region.
Europe secured 3,718 investment announcements last year, six more than in 2007. However, the number of jobs created fell by 16% to 148,333.
Ernst & Young predicts that the current global recession will impact European FDI even more this year. It says that provisional data from the first three months of 2009 shows an 8% drop in project announcements with the first quarter of 2008. 53% of business leaders say they have no expansion plans for the rest of the year.
