For Google, Brexit makes Eire a golden opportunity
Erm... if a stable business environment is what you seek, then Eire is an odd choice. Something else is up. Brexit is perhaps a catalyst - a golden opportunity, even - but it doesn't smell like a root cause.
Google picked Eire years ago because it was, and always has been, a corrupt, push-over state, offering low(ish) corporation tax rates and a tax treaty with America that ensures America has the lion's share of taxable revenue.... which America duly chooses not to tax (much to the chagrin of the European Union, see http://www.brexit.me.uk/2016/09/european-commission-v-republic-of.html ). Meanwhile, even America has (partially) signed up to the BEPS project, a tax anti-avoidance thing which aims to prevent taxable revenue from simply evaporating into thin air (the taxman's equivalent of nailing jelly to the ceiling).
This is the most likely explanation behind Google's move, so much so that it would very likely still have happened even if if the UK had Brexited with the only issue-literate plan out there - EFTA/EEA as described in Flexcit ( http://www.eureferendum.com/documents/flexcit.pdf ) - or had voted to remain on 23Jun2016. Ironically, in the briefest glimpses of issue-literacy, HMG seems to have thwarted Google's plans (and Eire's not-quite-taxable-revenues and America's we-can-but-won't-taxable-revenues!) by wondering aloud about revenue-based taxation of internet services delivered to UK-based customers. Ouch.
Thinking ahead, has anybody thought about the impact on Eire of Brexit, whether planned or unplanned? (Judging from other comments in this forum, probably not.) From Google's perspective, Brexit will distress Eire considerably, especially if Brexit results in the UK leaving the European Economic Area.
That makes Eire even more attractive to a cabal of American mega-corporations, because the push-over state wouldn't even need pushing: it'll roll over before being asked. The aforementioned "shed on an allotment" will be taken down pronto, probably replaced by a small kennel to comply figuratively with GDPR.
What else has happened to corroborate this story? Well, Merkel popped over to Eire earlier this week to see whether there was another way to thwart Brexit, to stop it from happening and to destroy permanently the pitiful residue of democracy in the UK (to bail out the UK's astonishingly inept political establishment). Merkel learnt that Eire does not want to pay a Eurocent to protect the EU's external land border with a third country. This underlines Google's view that Eire is an already-distressed state that is set to become an even more distressed state.
Oh, and the European Commission keeps on wanting to slap fines on Google. Well, the European Council might have something to say about that. The European Council comprises governments of the EU27. One of whom is... Eire. Ah. And the government of Eire is - and will be - too weak to resist corporatism on its own turf. Eire will be ready to assume the doubled-over position to collect its instructions anally from its corporate masters and influence the European Council away from the fanaticism of the European Commission.
Always attack your enemy on its weakest front, at its weakest point. Google has found Eire's destiny.
Google's timing to re-locate trade from UK to Eire is absolutely immaculate. Google has struck at the iron at its hottest point in time.
Brexit is perhaps a catalyst - a golden opportunity, even - but it doesn't smell like a root cause. QED.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
