I originally thought you were implying that low tax rates to lure in business was the cause of debt:
rmc: "In Ireland, these kinds of tax breaks are one of the foundations of our economy."
You: "And that's the reason Ireland has something like 1000% external debt to GDP"
I pointed out that a property bubble was the primary cause, and that low tax rates are unrelated to this. Lets put aside your original argument, and focus on the new one. You assert "more multinationals->higher debt for local business and government". Could you explain this step?
As for why Ireland was hurt more than others, their bubble was bigger:
Oh well. But WHY was the bubble bigger in Ireland? Do Irishmen need some kind of bigger houses and more of them than the rest of the world?
Anyway, we keep going and going in circles. Let's stop. The whole story (including why more debt) is very well described here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Celtic_Tiger
More on that later I guess.
Let me just add that it would be very simplistic to attribute "current problems" just to the property bubble, or high debts to just low tax rate for multinationals. So to make it clear, that's not how I think.
Before making your argument, keep in mind that 12.5% of something > 33% of nothing.