Speech by An Taoiseach, Mr. Enda Kenny T.D.
at the Official Opening of Dataplex Blanchardstown
Friday 20th September 2013.
Thank you Eddie for your kind words and your invitation to join you here today.
I am delighted to be part of this historic day for your Company – Dataplex.
It is a pleasure for me always to attend and officially open a new addition to the Irish economy – especially one as cutting edge and modern as Dataplex.
It is another great addition to Ireland’s fast growing digital industry. We have new Irish and foreign digital companies, including some of the biggest global names, establishing operations across Ireland.
Between them they are generating vast amounts of data that I can no longer comprehend.
Storing, processing, manipulating, ’Big Data’ is now one of the fastest growing industries in the world with new applications being developed on a daily basis.
The ongoing transition to cloud computing is changing business models right across the globe and is presenting new business opportunities for forward thinking countries like Ireland and companies like Dataplex.
I am pleased to note that this is an Irish company, with international ambitions that is developing new service centres and data centres in London and Malta.
These investments are important as we continue on our mission to make Ireland the best small country in the world for business by 2016.
Our plan to reach this goal is called the Action Plan for Jobs which is driving new action right across Government to improve the business environment in Ireland.
One of the key disruptive reforms in our Action Plan on Jobs is to make Ireland one of the leading countries in Europe for Big Data.
This is on foot of the reality that data collected and generated by companies and governments is growing by approximately 40% per year.
The aim of this initiative is to exploit the employment potential of data analytics by investing heavily in new research facilities in this space.
This involves the establishment of a new industry led Technology Centre and the commencement of new Government initiatives where big data analytics are used to deliver solutions to public service challenges.
One of the measures delivered under the Action Plan for Jobs was the announcement of a major new Big Data/Data Analytics Centre called INSIGHT.
INSIGHT has a cohort of 250 top-class researchers, spanning across UCD, NUI Galway and DCU, collaborating with 45 industry partners.
It is a 6 year, €80 million research project with industry providing a 30% contribution.
On a more low tech level the famous Irish climate is also very attractive to big data facilities.
No more cursing those ‘soft days’, it is the ideal climate to house big “Big Data” facilities.
More generally the upcoming Budget next month will be another opportunity to enhance our business environment and help get Ireland back to work.
Our 12.5% corporation tax remains a cornerstone of Irish industry policy and is not in question from any quarters.
Also in line with our Programme for Government commitments we won’t be increasing income tax which would only add extra taxes onto jobs and investment and would represent a step back in our path of national recovery.
Determined structural reforms and fiscal consolidation allow us to continue to make progress in returning our economy to sustainable growth.
Yesterday’s welcome growth figures for Q2 are encouraging but will not lessen the task of reducing our deficit back to sustainable levels.
As the economy continues to stabilise we are working towards exiting our Programme of Support later this year which will be a further boost to investor confidence.
Finally, I want to thank Eddie and Colm for having me here today.
I wish you – and your customers/clients the very best in your endeavours.
I now wish to officially open this excellent facility.