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As a subscriber you can listen to articles at work, in the car, or while you work out. Subscribe NowA partnership between Indiana and its largest trade partner moved a step closer to reality Monday.
Through House Bill 1489, the state would establish a trade commission with Ireland to strengthen its business relationship with the country and exchange ideas on policy, economic development and infrastructure.
“Indiana’s strong ties with the Irish people are clear,” said Rep. Timothy O’Brien, R-Evansville, the bill’s author.
Ireland is the top importer to Indiana, with $20.9 billion in goods in 2023, according to the latest Department of Commerce data.
The governor and statehouse leadership would select the 13-member commission, according to the bill. It would include representatives from the Indiana General Assembly (four Republicans, two Democrats), the Indiana Chamber of Commerce, a higher education institution and communities representing Irish Americans.
The commission would last at least four years.
The bill passed the House Government and Regulatory Reform Committee 10-2 on Tuesday. The next step is for the legislation to be called up on the House floor for full consideration and amendments.
The two dissenting votes were from Democrats who wanted to see tweaks to the bill, but they otherwise supported it. Rep. John Bartlett, D-Indianapolis, said he’d like to see workforce issues more strongly represented in the commission’s goals, and Rep. Chris Campbell, D-Lafayette, said she wanted an even number of Democrats and Republicans on the commission.
The bill had overseas support from former Ireland Minister Bertie Ahern and Irish politician Mark Daly, who joined the committee meeting over a video call. The pair emphasized the continued partnership would be mutually beneficial.
“We believe strongly that this kind of cooperation, this kind of dialog, this kind of legislation will allow us to continue on and make extensive progress on what we’ve been doing for many, many years,” Ahern said.
The Ireland connection
Indiana is home to operations from 52 Ireland-based businesses, including Accenture, Allegion, Eaton Corp., Ingersoll-Rand and Johnson Controls, while Ireland hosts 11 Hoosier businesses, including Eli Lilly and Co., Cook Group, Cummins, Elanco, Fort Wayne Metals and Co., and Zimmer Biomet.
Lilly is the largest Hoosier company doing business in Ireland, employing more than 3,500 people across three locations in the country. The company announced a $1.8 billion investment in two manufacturing sites, including a biopharmaceutical facility in Limerick that is under construction.
“Ireland is a major partner for us,” said Susan Brock Williams, Lilly’s associate vice president of state government affairs, during the hearing. “We see this as a true partnership.”
The country is one of the world’s top producers of pharmaceuticals and is highly regarded among drugmakers for its favorable business environment due to its low corporate tax rate, skilled workforce and business-friendly policies.
The University of Notre Dame, which has strong ties to Ireland, also supports the bill. The football team has played multiple games in the country, including as recently as 2023, when the Fighting Irish beat Navy 42-3 in the Aer Lingus College Football Series in Dublin.
The naming-rights sponsor of that series, Irish airline Aer Lingus, will start flying out of Indianapolis International Airport to Dublin in May. The nonstop flight will be Indianapolis’ only transatlantic route.
Ireland and Indianapolis have also become some of the fastest-growing markets for sports technology. As part of its launch, IEDC-backed Sports Tech HQ, a group focused on building the state’s sports technology sector, brought the multi-day One-Zero Summit to Indianapolis starting in 2022.
The international gathering focuses on sports and entertainment technology and began in Dublin in 2016, but has been co-located in Indianapolis for the past three years. The move was an initial step in building relationships between the city and Ireland, which also has a growing sports technology industry. Ross O’Dwyer, co-founder of One-Zero, told IBJ in 2023 that those efforts could pay off big-time down the road.
“I think [Indiana] can be a hub—they’re so passionate about it,” O’Dwyer said of local tech leaders. “It goes to consistency, though, and increasing bit-by-bit every year what is being done. I know that’s not what people like to hear. It’s, ‘How do we do something in four years?’ But instead, it should be, ‘What does it look like in 20 years?’ I can nearly guarantee Indy will be a hub by then, but it’s going to take that compounded effort to attract things there versus another state and help people understand that Indy is the place to be.”
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hopefully this partnership will be allowed to thrive, and Trusk won’t do something stupid like impose tariffs on pharma products imported from Ireland. Or on the whiskey.
Maybe our state will will learn a thing or two about the value of commitment to education, access to healthcare, reproductive rights, tobacco restrictions, green energy, and yes, even DEI programs, all of which have helped fuel the Irish economy, improved the talent of its workforce, and the general quality of life for its citizens. These “woke” initiatives were adopted by what would be considered by any measure a conservative country over the past 30 years. A real living laboratory of what is possible.
No, Indiana won’t learn a thing from partnering with Ireland. Ireland wanted to improve the quality of life so the educated would stay, and others come home. So businesses with well paying jobs would move there. To be a land of economic opportunity.
Indiana, on the other hand, doesn’t want the educated to live here. They want them gone, because the educated will figure out these cowpads. They want businesses that require ratepayers to pay for electricity to power businesses that will provide little employment once the buildings are constructed by out of state construction teams. They want to encourage pollution by large farms and feed lots. Indiana doesn’t want schools to prepare students for college, or to have college graduates. Trades are great, but study after study shows college educated people make more money over their careers.
In short, the Republican party at the state level wants Indiana to be anything but a land of economic opportunity.