Rather than over-extend your indulgence, it should be said upfront that the number of NAMA properties or indeed any other properties bought by non-Irish nationals in return for a visa, is NIL. This follows the launch of two schemes in January 2012 by the Minister for Justice, Equality and Defence Alan Shatter. When announcing the schemes, the Minister said visas would be made available in return for investment in Irish business, investment in a bond issued by the NTMA or the purchase of Irish property including property in the NAMA portfolio.
So how many thousands of visas have been issued and how much have the wealthy foreigners invested in Ireland?
Well, hold onto your seats. So far, three visas have been issued – one to someone from North America, one for Africa and one for Asia. And how much property have these three furriners bought? Err, none actually. And how many millions have they shoveled into the national coffers by buying NTMA bonds? Again, none, nada, nichevo. What the three have done is committed to invest at least €75,000 in an Irish business over the next five years.
In fairness to the hapless minister, he has overseen the creation of the new bond at the NTMA which pays 1% per annum for a fixed five-year term. Shocking really, that none of the three amigos have bought any of said bonds.
Spain has recently announced that it may sell property to Russian and Chinese nationals in return for visas; this after Spain claiming it has at least 700,000 vacant homes after its Irish-like construction boom in the 2000s. Based on the Irish experience, the Spanish shouldn’t bank on making any real dent in its property stock from such initiatives.
Minister Shatter was responding to parliamentary questions on Tuesday this week from the Sinn Fein finance spokesperson Pearse Doherty. The full exchange is show here, and it should be available shortly online at the Oireachtas website.
Deputy Pearse Doherty: To ask the Minister for Justice and Equality further to his announcement on 24 January 2012 of the Immigrant Investor Programme and Start-up Entrepreneur Programme; the number of visas issued to date with respect to both programmes, and an analysis of visa numbers by country of origin of visa recipients..
Deputy Pearse Doherty: To ask the Minister for Justice and Equality further to his announcement on 24 January 2012 of the Immigrant Investor Programme and Start-up Entrepreneur Programme; if he will provide an update on the creation of the special low interest Irish bond, referred to in his announcement.
Deputy Pearse Doherty:To ask the Minister for Justice and Equality further to his announcement on 24 January 2012 of the Immigrant Investor Programme and Start-up Entrepreneur Programme; the overall volume and value of property sold to date by the National Asset Management Agency to visa recipients..
Deputy Pearse Doherty: To ask the Minister for Justice and Equality further to his announcement on 24 January 2012 of the Immigrant Investor Programme and Start-up Entrepreneur Programme; the overall total investment to date in Irish business by visa recipients..
Minister for Justice and Equality, Alan Shatter: The Immigrant Investor Bond is one of the investment options available to potential candidates for the Immigrant Investor Programme which has been open for applications since April of this year. Details of the bond can be viewed in the Guidelines for the programme which are available from the web-page of the Irish Naturalisation and Immigration Service, http://www.inis.gov.ie. The bond has a term of 5 years and pays an annual interest rate of 1%. The bond has been created by the National Treasury Management Agency and cannot be traded or transferred during its term.
Details of the options on property investment are also outlined in the Guidelines for the Immigrant Investor Programme. My officials inform me that, to date, no candidates have applied for consideration of investments in property or bonds as eligible investments under the Programme.
On foot of recommendations from the Evaluation Committee meeting of 9 August 2012, I have approved immigration permissions for one successful applicant under the Immigrant Investor Programme and two successful applicants under the Start-up Entrepreneur Programme. The Deputy will be aware that I cannot give details of individual immigration cases, however I will say that the three successful candidates originate from North America, Africa and Asia. Both projects under the Start-up Entrepreneur Programme fulfilled the requirement for a minimum of €75,000 funding for their respective high potential start-ups. The investment proposal in an existing Irish business approved under the Immigrant Investor Programme significantly exceeded the requirements of the scheme.
My officials have informed me that the Evaluation Committee will meet later this week to consider four applications under the Immigrant Investor Programme and thirteen applications under the Start-up Entrepreneur Programme. The Irish Naturalisation and Immigration Service continues to receive a significant level of inquiries on these programmes.
In the US fillibustering is a common tactic for delaying or disrupting bills you don’t like.
In Ireland, fillibustering appears to be the Government’s preferred method for dealing with Questions it doesn’t like.
I am beginning to think that the Dail has outlived its usefulness to Ireland.
AS I understand it this Investor Visa is pretty much standard in most countries in the west. It mightn’t be called that but that is the ‘nature of the beast’. Think about it. The middleclass have been moving to Oz and the US effortlessly for years on the back of opening a foreign division of an Irish Ltd Co. And as long as those moving aren’t a charge on the US or Oz exchequer everyone is happy as clams. While the system in the UK is far less onerous. There the fiction or notional fiction at least, isn’t even bothered with. The only question is if they can open any business, be that a corner shop or foundry.
So you “lost” a few high profile ones to the US but “gained” these few back..I’m not sure how well it’s being marketed,but not much point advertising it in US..but the threshold or hurdle is pretty low.Surprised there has not been a bigger uptake.
Stateside according to attached about 6,000 a year..
“In the U.S., the immigrant investor program has been responsible for at least 46,810 jobs and more than $2.3 billion in investments since its inception in 1990, according to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services.”
http://money.cnn.com/2012/06/11/news/economy/citizenship-foreign-investment/index.htm
With the political and media hostility against people who are non resident for taxation purposes (tax exiles) it is not surprising that there has been little or no take up on this program.
Offering 1% bond is a very low rate, hardly worth it. In fact guaranteed to lose money in real terms.
For investing in property, once assets rise above 5 million euro (Irish based) and a income of 1 million or more then a annual hit of 200K will kick in even if one is NOT an Irish citizen, even if one does not reside for 1 day in the country.
As Mr Michael Noonan stated, the “contentious issue” of residency rules will be kept under review. Despite the fact that the Residency Review Commission (2012) only received 8 submissions from the public of which apparently all 8 were supportive of of maintaining the system as it currently is. Despite this fact, the Minister for Finance continues to refer to the matter as contentious.
I could understand the issue as being contentious if 8000 submissions where made, but only 8? How on earth this can be considered contentious?
International investors are wise to STAY AWAY, the risks of being very seriously financially burned by investing money in the country are TOO high.
Not an expert at all,but the Canadian system is much admired and considered pretty good,a bit like their health care system…
Given the Irish Govt.’s stated policy objective to create a green/smart economy this may be worth mirroring..
“The government will set aside 2,750 visas a year for startup entrepreneurs and their families. Last year it issued about 700 visas under the old entrepreneur class, under which an immigrant could do something as simple as buy a corner store and hire one person, and then get out of the business after a year.”
http://business.financialpost.com/2012/09/11/canada-plans-new-visa-to-lure-high-tech-immigrant-entrepreneurs/