merrion street

Taoiseach Enda Kenny today addressed the Chartered Accountants of Ireland Leinster Society in advance of travelling to an informal meeting of the 27 members of the European Council where he is to discuss ways to create more growth and jobs opportunities across the Union.

The Taoiseach acknowledged that the election of President Hollande in France had been a boon to the Growth agenda.

While the Irish economy and financial system is stabilising, we need a sustained period of economic growth to lower unemployment and to emerge from the debt crisis created over the last decade.

As a trading nation, a jobs-rich economic recovery in Ireland depends on the restoration of growth in our major trading partners. Stimulus to the Irish economy will come from further growth in exports and foreign investment and a recovery in business investment and household confidence and spending, not from more Government spending.

The Taoiseach illustrated Ireland’s reliance on international trade and investment:

Exports of Irish goods and services measured €165bn in 2011, an €8bn increase on the previous year and equivalent to 106% of total production in the Irish economy. Of this, €61bn - or 37% of the total - was exported to other members of the eurozone.

I welcome the growing consensus at European level that greater budgetary discipline and more efforts to promote growth are not alternatives - they are both essential. Sound public finances are a condition for sustainable growth and employment.

And that is why, through our Action Plan for Jobs, we are steadily removing the barriers to job creation and investment in this country, with the aim of increasing employment levels in Ireland by at least 100,000 by 2016.