Foreign Capital and Development Strategy in Irish Industrialization, 1958–70

A bstract . In the 1930s the government of the Irish Republic instituted an import substitution economic development strategy to diversify economic activity. This potential was later exhausted. In 1958 a new strategy was adopted, emphasizing the use of foreign capital and reliance on the external market. It yielded many benefits, detailed in this paper, but involved a number of shortcomings associated with multinational corporations when they operate in less developed countries. These are specified. Current policy since 1973 seeks to mobilize local resources and promises mitigation of some of the problems. But it is not adequate to reduce some of the central problems arising from the reliance on foreign capital.