“Really, I don’t know bad stories of French investment in Ireland. They’ve always been quite successful”
French businessman Richard Dujardin lived in Ireland for eight years and won the first operating contract for the Luas. He now chairs NetworkIrlande, the cross-border business group that recently held an awards ceremony in Paris to highlight companies taking part in the current boom in trade and investment between the two countries. Thomas Hubert was there and he spoke with Dujardin as well as two of the winners, Danone Ireland’s managing director Killian Barry and Martin O’Donnell, commercial director with the ag-tech start-up Terra NutriTech. They discussed silver linings from Brexit, shifting export patterns and perceptions between the France and Ireland – as well as the value of the Irish pub to business diplomacy.
