The Irish economy: Fitter yet fragile Ireland’s success in attracting foreign investment has its drawbacks

According to The Economist’s “The Irish economy: Fitter yet fragile Ireland’s success in attracting foreign investment has its drawbacks” (January 3, 2013), (http://www.economist.com/news/finance-and-economics/21569049-irelands-success-attracting-foreign-investment-has-its-drawbacks-fitter-yet%20) foreign presence in Ireland is now a “towering one”: “[h]elped by a low corporate-tax rate of 12.5%, Ireland continues to attract foreign direct investment (FDI), especially from American firms and particularly in pharmaceuticals, information technology and financial services. The number of new FDI projects in 2012 has been similar to that in 2011, itself the highest for a decade, says Barry O’Leary, the boss of Ireland’s inward-investment agency”. But Ireland’s reliance on foreign firms may have undesirable effects, e.g., “Irish GNP is lower than GDP because of the big profits made by foreign firms [and t]he gap between the two has been widening, from 14% in 2007 to 20% in 2011”. Why is this a problem? Explain using your own words.