The number of people employed in IDA Ireland backed companies has reached its highest level ever.
According to the IDA's results for 2018 almost 230,000 employees are working in the Multinational sector here.
Over half of the jobs are outside of Dublin resulting in the largest regional jobs growth in 17 years.
Over 15,000 of them were employed in the South East in 2018 with a 7 percent growth rate for the region.
Good news for #SouthEast today with total employment in @IDAIRELAND client companies up 7% to 15,580 employees in 2018 - a further increase on 2017 job figures #IDAIreland70 https://t.co/0IuJRlSKGU
— IDA SouthEast Region (@IDASouthEastReg) January 3, 2019
CEO of IDA Ireland Martin Shanahan says our regions are in competition with the rest of the world, not with the capital.
"We need both that's the answer," said Mr Shanahan.
"We also need a strong Dublin, Dublin is an international city of scale, it is a beacon."
Brexit is making Ireland a "safer pair of hands" in terms of foreign direct investment.
That is according to Raymond Sexton, founder of Tangible Ireland, an independent economic and social development agency that provides support services to FDI projects here.
Following the publication of the Government and the IDA's annual results for 2018, Mr Sexton says Brexit is good for Ireland in relation to foreign direct investment.
"Essentially Brexit is actually making Ireland a safer pair of hands," said Mr Sexton.
"Everyone is just thinking 'let's head to Europe' or the northern hemisphere or across the Atlantic and immediately they link 'London - confused, Dublin - clear'.
Mr Shanahan said that although today's figures show strong gains, there are many significant risks facing Ireland in the future.
"Ireland is a small open trading economy and increased nationalism and protectionism is likely to have an impact on future FDI figures," said Mr Shanahan.
"10 years on from the financial crisis, the global economy continues to grow at a steady pace but the OECD says global GDP growth has peaked and is slowing on the back of weaker trade growth and less supportive monetary and fiscal policies.
“According to FDI Intelligence, global greenfield investment projects fell 1.1% in 2017, while at the same time investment into Ireland continued to grow.
"Ireland wins a much larger market share of European FDI than expected for its size.
"Ireland’s share of all FDI projects to the EU in 2017 was 5.4%, while Ireland’s share of EU GDP was just 1.9%."
