THE ECONOMY has the potential to grow by 3 to 4 per cent a year over the next 20 years, which would be twice the EU average, employers’ group Ibec has concluded.
At a breakfast gathering of Ibec members, ambassadors and politicians in Dublin yesterday, director general Danny McCoy said “the ambition is growth with a purpose” as he outlined the group’s proposals on driving Ireland’s recovery.
He said this would help to get us out of “austerity and get people back to work more quickly”.
Ibec’s proposals were broad in context and provided little by way of specific detail in how this growth might be achieved.
Mr McCoy said the proposals were “ambitions”, not forecasts. These include increasing the number of people at work to two million by 2020 and making Ireland the best country in the world in which to conduct business.
Ibec plans to launch a “business conditions ranking” to monitor the latter ambition.
Mr McCoy said Ireland needed to expand export capacity among indigenous companies from 15 per cent to 25 per cent by 2020.
It also needed to improve its offering to foreign direct investment, including all aspects of competitiveness, he added.
Mr McCoy said restoring domestic demand was vital, which would involve improving consumer confidence. “We need a return to normalised spending and normalised savings,” he said.
He also cited the delivery of world-class public services as an important plank in the recovery. He stressed the need for Ireland to vote Yes in the upcoming vote on the EU fiscal stability treaty.
Mr McCoy said it was important to generate momentum in the economy to drive growth. He described as a “remarkable achievement” Ireland’s return to “modest growth” from the collapse of the economy from 2008 onwards. The Ibec chief cited the need to redirect investment and talent from the property sector, which is stagnant, to other sectors that are capable of delivering sustainable growth.
While accepting that there were significant challenges ahead, not least Ireland’s indebtedness, Mr McCoy added: “We have done this before and we can do it again.
“We are steadily regaining the trust and belief of our competitors, financial markets and international commentators. We now need to believe it ourselves and bring that confidence home.”
