Minister Paschal Donohoe Highlights the Importance of R&D Tax Credit At AmCham Annual Dinner
AmCham was delighted to have Minister for Finance, Paschal Donohoe TD, attend the 2025 Annual Dinner and US-Ireland Business Awards as guest of honour.
Speaking to attendees, Minister Donohoe noted the strength of the two-way, US-Ireland relationship saying: “At a time of significant turbulence in the global trading environment, it is important to remember that Ireland and the US enjoy a significant and mutually beneficial economic relationship.”
He added: “This economic benefit flows both ways, creating prosperity and jobs for large numbers of people on both sides of the Atlantic.”
Speaking on the importance of continuing to drive innovation in attracting US investment, Minister Donohoe reiterated his commitment to enhancing the R&D tax credit.
He said: “The Research & Development tax credit is one of a suite of corporation tax measures that ensures Ireland remains an attractive location for both domestic and inward investment and building an innovation-driven domestic enterprise sector. Today over 1,800 companies benefit from our R&D scheme, and this continues to grow.”
Minister Donohoe continued: “In the Programme for Government, I committed to examining options to enhance the R&D tax credit, to reward innovation and digitalisation.”
“We greatly value the feedback we are receiving, including as part of our recent Public Consultation, and this remains a key focus for my officials and I ahead of the Budget later this year.”
Looking to Ireland’s future Minister Donohoe spoke about Ireland's reputation as “business friendly, pro-growth and stable” as being “key to the longstanding fruitful relationships we have enjoyed with industry leaders sitting here today.”
During the event, which was sponsored by EY and IDA Ireland with the Irish Times as media partners, AmCham presented the 2025 US Ireland Business Awards. The awards recognise inspiring individuals, teams and organisations who have strengthened the US-Ireland business, trade and investment relationship.
The 2025 Global Leadership Award was presented to Martin Cotter, Senior Vice President of Vertical Business Units (VBU) and President of Analog Devices (ADI) EMEA.
Martin’s work over the last 3 decades has not only positioned Ireland as a vital hub within ADI’s global operations, but has been pivotal in establishing Ireland as a global technological hub and destination of choice for world-leading multinational companies.
The 2025 Global Impact Award was presented to Alltech for its Working Together for a Planet of Plenty vision. Launched in 2019 by Alltech President and CEO Dr. Mark Lyons, Working Together for a Planet of Plenty is a call to action for global collaboration, across industries, geographies, and sectors, to create solutions that support sustainable agriculture, nourish the world’s growing population, revitalize local economies, and protect our planet’s natural resources.
The winner of the 2025 Global Community Award is Microsoft Ireland and Maynooth University for the initiative which addresses inequalities with access to STEM careers among secondary school students in socially disadvantaged communities. In 2023, the programme secured €600k in funding from Microsoft and matched by Research Ireland and the Department of Education through the Discover grant. The total grant of €1.2m was then used to roll out the program to 5,000 girls across four provinces in Ireland.
Attendees also heard from AmCham President, Liz Cunningham, who highlighted the importance of enhancing Ireland’s talent pool in maintaining our competitive advantage.
She said: “Businesses are rapidly evolving, and our talent offering needs to keep pace. 64 percent of our members said they are experiencing a skills gap in Ireland, with the greatest gaps being seen in digital and data, engineering, and machine learning and A.I."
“In addressing this, AmCham is calling for a renewed focus on the attraction and retention of world-class researchers and educators to support industry-academia collaboration and talent development, the on-going mapping of skills needs to match the pace of innovation and change within industry and the expansion of the range of apprenticeships available, with a particular focus on addressing skills gaps.”