Danny McCoy, CEO Ibec addressed the audience at the annual Ibec Business Leaders Conference at the Convention Centre today (9 March) and warned that political inaction and a lack of long-term planning means Ireland risks missing an opportunity to improve national infrastructure and relieve economic bottlenecks.
As a keynote speaker McCoy highlighted that 'failure to take more decisive steps to relieve pressure on transport, housing, education and health infrastructure risks creating serious long-term economic and social problems.'
"We must not let the austerity mind set of the crisis dictate economic policy into the future. To benefit from the economic opportunities that now exist, we need to massively ramp up infrastructure spending. But the Government is not embracing this ambition." McCoy added.
In his discussion McCoy suggested that 'the Government plans to put €1 billion annually into a rainy day fund and the new, arbitrary debt to GDP ratio target of 45% will reduce the money available for vital projects. It will deprive the economy and households of much needed investment and will be detrimental to quality of life'.
On the proposed National Planning Framework, McCoy said, "We must progress the Framework without delay to address the growing imbalance between Dublin and the rest of the country. We have an opportunity to address our economic and social challenges, but only if it is underpinned by an all-Ireland approach to planning and increased State investment across our regions."
The conference was supported by event partners Accenture, Merc Partners and Vodafone.
© 2017 - Checkout Magazine by Donna Ahern
