Phoblacht/Republican News · Thursday 31 January 2002

Warts and all, can Harney handle it?

Morgan calls for economic strategy group to have all-Ireland dimension

BY ROBBIE SMYTH

"We will not guarantee our future by looking to the past: We will not move forward by standing still". Ever get the feeling that you were here before? These tired clichés came from Mary Harney, who as Enterprise and Employment minister is responsible for formulating and implementing economic strategy. This week, Harney effectively initiated a process of buck passing of the government's job creation responsibilities.

The minister took the well worn path of, when faced with an economic crisis, announcing the formation of an expert group and giving them responsibility for finding the magic formula that will salve all our economic ills. Meanwhile, you can fend off any criticism of economic policy by saying that you are waiting for the expert report.

So, this week Harney launched a new Enterprise Strategy Group, which will include representatives of Irish and international firms, venture capitalists, academics and union representatives. It will be lead by Eoin O'Driscoll, managing director of consulting firm Aderra.

There is no doubt that Harney will put together an impressive line-up of the great and the good in the business sector and the group's collective know-how could bring huge insights into our economic problems, but going on past records there is not much hope for new thinking from this review.

The problem is that in 1982 we had the Telesis report and in 1992 we had the Culliton report and now in 2003 we have turned full circle and still the same questions raised even before Telesis are still unanswered.

Harney alluded to these problems in her press launch for the strategy group, which must report in six to nine months. The group's terms of reference contain much of the current government eco-babble with which we are well familiar. They are, we are told, charged with "developing a strategy to strengthen Irish competitiveness and promote a knowledge driven economy".

However, the real issue and the meat of the group's work is to study the optimum balance between international or Irish business, types of economic activity and the need to achieve regional balance.

Mary Harney has said that she hopes the report will be "radical" and wants a "warts and all" review. She said that the group should "stand back from the system and take a more aggressive and objective review".

What does this really mean? Is the government really willing to take on a root and branch review of its enterprise strategies? The 1993 Culliton report culminated in the break up of the IDA into two agencies, Enterprise Ireland and IDA Ireland, responsible for indigenous and international business respectively. Alongside this came the creation of county enterprise boards, a move mirrored in the Six Counties without any expert report! After that, the trail went dry and nothing more seemed to happen.

One possible reason is that the economic boom of the Tiger economy years intervened and the Irish economy, driven by the international one, didn't need its own economic strategy.

Now that the global economy is in a downturn, the government suddenly seems to need to return to where it was in 1992 and formulate a new plan.

Sinn Féin spokesperson on Enterprise and Employment, Arthur Morgan, spoke to An Phoblacht about the plan and said that radical new thinking is needed. "Multinationals are disappearing to the cheaper wage economies, and we need to recognise that while international business investment is an important part of our economic strategy indigenous Irish business along with vibrant well run public and social economy sectors are the bedrock for future successful economic development on the island."

other important point in the strategy group's work, according to Morgan, is the need to have an all-Ireland dimension. "Developing two economic strategies on the island is simply building inefficiency into whatever strategic proposals the group come to. The new strategy group must have an all-Ireland remit"

Sinn Féin will be making a submission to the group and Morgan says it will be making the case for an all-Ireland strategy that finally tackles the issues of funding and promoting Irish business. Such a strategy would demonstrate the vital role the public sector and social economy must play in ensuring we have an Irish economy that overcomes regional underdevelopment and bias, that is environmentally sustainable and has full employment as a core goal.

Meanwhile, there is still the economic challenge of today, with an economy leaking hundreds of jobs weekly. This is the warts and all reality that Harney doesn't seem to be able to handle.

15% rise in house prices

House prices continue their upward spiral, according to figures released this week by the Economic and Social Research Institute.

Prices have risen 14.7% since June 2002 and the average cost of a house in Dublin is €292,000, compared to €220,000 for the state as a whole. With average earnings in the 26-Counties just passing €30,000 for 2002, and with banks not supposed to lend more than three times gross income, a couple earning the average wage cannot afford housing in modern Ireland.

The ESRI figures came just days after Focus Ireland published its annual report, which accuses the Fianna Fáil/PD government of breaking promises to halve homelessness by 2005.

The Focus Ireland report highlights the depth and consequences of the government's failures where housing waiting lists have grown 24% to 48,413 households since 1999. The report also shows that "the average length of time spent living in emergency accommodation has shot up from 20 days in 1993 to an average of 18 months in 2003".

Perhaps the most startling data in the Focus Ireland report is that 56% of the homeless people using the agency's services last year were under 26. The two reports together show quite clearly that while some people are being priced out of the housing market, the knock on effects are that more and more people are becoming homeless.

EU popularity falls

Bertie Ahern has ordered that 50 EU directives ignored by government be implemented before the 26 Counties takes on the EU presidency next January. Ahern doesn't want the government to look bad in the face of other EU states.

While he might be able to implement the directives ahead of the 2004 presidency, what can he do to tackle the sagging popularity of the EU in the 26 Counties? An EU barometer survey of Irish voters has found that enthusiasm for EU membership has fallen from 83% in 2001 to 67% and the percentage believing that the state has benefited from EU membership has fallen from 90% to 77% over the same time period.

The survey also found that there was a 5% rise in a lack of knowledge of the EU, putting us among the four states with the most widespread lack of knowledge about the EU. Perhaps Bertie Ahern should direct some effort here before the EU presidency?