Ireland publishes inaugural FDI regime report

Ireland has published its report on the first year of its new third-country investment screening regime.

The report (15 pages / 894KB PDF), published on 27 May, contains an overview of the regime’s first year of operation after the Screening of Third Country Transactions Act 2023 (39 pages/ 547 KB) (‘the Act’) came into effect on 6 January 2025.

The legislation introduced a comprehensive screening mechanism to help ensure that Ireland remains a secure and attractive destination for inward investment while bolstering its national security and public order by providing greater scrutiny over foreign investments. Ireland’s inward investment screening mechanism followed the implementation of EU FDI Regulation 2019/452 which established a framework for the screening of foreign direct investments into the EU.

Under the terms of the Act, parties to Irish transactions have to notify the minister for enterprise, tourism and employment regarding the acquisition by third country – non-EU, non-EEA or Swiss – acquirers, of certain controlling investments  in undertakings or assets in Ireland which are active in specified sensitive sectors, and have a value equal to or greater than €2 million.

The Act requires Ireland’s Department of Enterprise, Tourism and Employment (DETE) to present an annual report which provides an overview of the operation of the screening regime. This report outlines the number of inward investment transactions notified in Ireland, as well as the number of transactions formally screened and the screening decisions issued between 6 January 2025 and 31 December 2025.

Over this period, a total of 102 notifications were submitted. However, 66 of these were not formally screened as they were not deemed to have met all of the criteria for mandatory notification. One notification was rejected as it was deemed incomplete, one was withdrawn by the notifier and eight were still undergoing assessment at the year-end.

A total of 26 screening notices were issued, 18 of which involved targeted entities related to or impacting upon critical infrastructure. The top five sectors in which investment was notified were energy, telecommunications, digital infrastructure, healthcare and pharmaceuticals.

Of the 26 screening notices issued, two were approved subject to conditions to ensure that contractual arrangements relating to the provision of critical services by the target company were maintained.

23 out of 26 screening notices were direct investments by third country investors – the majority of which were from the US and the UK – and three were indirect investments.

Commenting on the report’s findings, Ciarán Campbell, a competition expert with Pinsent Masons, said: "It has been a particularly busy first year for the Inward Investment Screening Unit (IISU)”.

“Of the 102 notifications submitted in 2025, almost two-thirds did not proceed to formal screening stage as they failed to meet all of the criteria for mandatory notification,” he said. “This signals that parties are taking a precautionary approach to notification in circumstances where the scope of the regime is relatively broad and there are notable penalties for non-compliance – at a maximum, a €4m fine.”

Paul Williams, a mergers expert with Pinsent Masons, commented that the timeframes within which the IISU is processing notifications were encouraging. "Within its guidance document, DETE notes that it endeavours to operate the screening mechanism as efficiently as possible,” he said. “Of the 26 notifications that proceeded to the full screening stage, the average time to clearance was 40.5 calendar days, with over 66% receiving a screening decision in under 40 calendar days. Given that the IISU has up to 90 calendar days to review a transaction – which is extendable in specified circumstances – these figures indicate that DETE is managing uncomplicated cases in an efficient and timely manner.”

However, Williams warned that formal requests for information effectively suspend the 'review clock', which may mean these average timelines could be longer in practice.

This overview of the first year of Ireland’s new FDI screening mechanism follows political agreement at the EU level in December 2025 to update the overarching EU FDI Regulation 2019/452. The revised mechanism will introduce mandatory screening in all member states, a common minimum sectoral scope and, notably, screening of intra-EU investments. Member states will have 18 months to ensure compliance from when the Regulation enters into force. These updates may require some further changes to Ireland's FDI regime and DETE has said that it will keep all stakeholders abreast of any future updates.

The Irish report also highlights the cooperation mechanism created by the EU FDI regulation, which permits member states and the European Commission to exchange information, as well as to raise concerns about specific investments on either security or public order grounds.

During 2025, Ireland’s DETE shared 23 notifications with other member states and the European Commission via the cooperation mechanism. No official comments or opinions were issued in relation to these notified transactions, but the Commission issued two requests for additional information. Three requests were also received from other member states.

DETE also reviewed 74 notifications shared by other member states via the cooperation mechanism where the transaction contained an Irish element, such as where the target company in that member state either had a subsidiary or conducted substantial business in Ireland. Although DETE said it requested additional information in two of these cases, it did not issue any formal comments to other member states.

At the same time as publishing its report, DETE issued a revised version of its inward investment screening guidance for stakeholders and investors (46-page / 1.37MB PDF), reflecting its practical experience in operating the regime to date.