Introduction
Good evening ladies and gentlemen.
I'm delighted to join you for your annual Dublin dinner and to be able to discuss with you our plan to invest in Cork and the South West region so that we can keep the recovery going.
But first of all, I’d like to thank Barrie O’Connell, Cork Chamber President, and Ernst and Young for the kind invitation to address you here tonight.
To Hugh MacKeown, former Chair of Musgraves Group, I’d like to compliment you on what you’ve achieved in your career with Musgraves, particularly your role in establishing some of Ireland’s most iconic retail brands like SuperValu and Centra.
The awarding of the Outstanding Achievement in Business Award to you here this evening is more than fitting, and I wish you every success for the future. The Musgrave Group itself has been supporting thousands of family businesses and their local communities in Ireland for many years, and has successfully led the way in developing the Irish retail market, and overseas markets too, through its entrepreneurial leadership. Long may its success continue.
Cork as a Thriving Enterprise Location
Tonight we celebrate your achievements alongside that of the Cork region.
Cork, as the second biggest urban and enterprise centre in the country, is essential to our national recovery.
The local leadership, the availability of skills, and the impressive infrastructure has catapulted local businesses onto the world stage while also attracting in more investment from some of the biggest business names in the world.
Enterprise Ireland clients from Cork such as Voxpro, Global Shares and Abtran are making waves all over the world. And some really interesting start-ups have emerged from the region in recent years and continue to grow. Names such as Teamwork, Trustev, Keelvar, Treemetrics, Radisens Diagnostics, and the Hire Lab are leading the way in their markets around the world.
The Government, through the work of IDA Ireland, promotes Cork internationally and the advantages of locating in Cork. Over the years, Cork has emerged as a leading cluster for Pharmaceutical and Biopharmaceutical companies.
I’ve also been delighted to announce many new investments by growing technology companies in the region.
Cork Chamber should be commended for its local leadership role in delivering an impressive range of services and benefits to its members. Together the members of the Chamber employ 100,000 people in the region. Through its work, it creates a supportive business environment and supports the region’s economic recovery.
Investing in Cork’s Recovery
But the Chamber knows, as does everyone in this room, that recovery is fragile.
Some parts of the country and some households have yet to feel the benefits of recovery.
This is why this Government is prioritising new plans and new investment to build a balanced regional recovery.
It was the theme of the recent 6 year capital investment plan. It was designed to remove the regional bottlenecks that held back investment and kept the regions from reaching their potential.
In line with our strategy to secure regional recovery, we have specifically prioritised new investment for Cork and the South West region.
This Government is ambitious and optimistic for Cork. We want to see Cork City leading a rejuvenated South West region. We want to see Cork business leading the recovery, investing more, and creating more jobs and local opportunities.
This is why we launched a specific South West Regional Action Plan on 3rd July this year. With the right support from Government we believe than an additional 40,000 extra jobs can be created over the coming years.
All of the regional Action Plan for Jobs are designed to support a resurgent domestic economy that can support local jobs and attract new regional investment.
It is why this Government is prioritising Cork for new investment. To break down the barriers to growth and to help Cork help itself.
This is why we are investing significantly in the Government’s capital plan to upgrade local roads such as the Dunkettle Interchange, the N28 Cork to Ringaskiddy, the N22 Ballyvourney to Macroom, and the Mallow relief road.
In light of the significant flooding experienced in Cork city in recent years and the high risk of considerable damage to property from both tidal and river flooding, we are supporting the largest ever flood defence scheme undertaken by the Office of Public Works and will offer protection from flooding to around 2,000 residential and commercial properties.
We are also targeting new investment at specific sectors that can attract more business and jobs into the region.
The Cork City Events Centre, Pairc Ui Chaoimh, and IMERC are all benefiting from State support for their ongoing development.
Thanks to the emerging recovery Cork will also benefit from renewed investment in State services. There are new Garda stations planned for Macroom and Glanmire, a refurbishment of Anglesea Street Station in Cork, and the deployment of 160 new Garda cars in the region.
New primary and secondary schools are also planned for the region, along with the ongoing development of new primary health care centres.
By investing in Cork we plan to secure its recovery and allow it to play its part in the national recovery.
Future Economic Plan
This Government does have a long term plan for Ireland. To rebuild a sustainable economy that isn’t reliant on any one sector. That can support new vital investment in our reformed public services.
We will continue to press ahead towards:
1. Replacing all the jobs lost during the recession by 2018 and reducing unemployment to 6% by 2020;
2. Making work pay through a combination of cuts in the rate of tax on work, along with better and more affordable childcare; and
3. Protecting Ireland from future shocks by delivering a surplus in the public finances and reducing debt.
To achieve this we need to get Ireland back to work and to create more jobs.
We have helped the private sector to create 125,000 new jobs since 2012. The jobs recovery has accelerated in 2015 with over 1,300 new jobs created every week this year.
But at 9.3% unemployment we still have far too many people out of work.
This is why new investment in Cork, along with reducing the penal tax rates on work is needed to encourage and incentivise new business and jobs.
We plan to achieve our ambitious job creation targets while still reducing our deficit and high levels of public debt.
Every year since entering Government we continued the job of bringing stability to our public finances - a prerequisite for jobs and growth.
We are working our way out of the fiscal hole that was keeping the Irish economy down.
The scale of the adjustment has been unprecedented for Ireland. However, every year we beat our European fiscal targets and put Ireland on the path to growth.
This allowed Ireland to be the first Eurozone country to successfully exit an international bailout in December 2013 without the need of a second bailout or other conditional lines of credit.
Today Ireland is the fastest growing economy in Europe. This growth is helping us to reduce our deficit to 2.1% this year, falling to 1.2% next year and we plan to eliminate it altogether in 2018.
We have committed to the Irish people that the country will never return to the days of boom and bust.
Supporting new Housing Construction
One of the principle causes of the last boom and bust was the unsustainable size of the construction sector. However, we have now gone from a situation of building far too many homes to not building enough to support our growing population.
This is having an impact on everyone looking for a home, from first time buyers to low income households and it threatens our recovery. Cork and its people have also suffered from the slowdown in supply.
The Government has already announced many measures to boost housing supply but today the Cabinet signed off on a new package of measures to further incentivise the construction of new housing.
I believe this new package will help contribute to our overall goal of returning to a stable and sustainable property market that can provide a range of housing solutions for all our people.
As part of this package the Government will go further by introducing a targeted development contribution rebate scheme in Dublin and Cork, focussed on large scale developments at affordable prices.
We will also fast-track the implementation of new apartment guidelines which while supporting good quality build, will improve the viability of this type of development.
The Minister for the Environment will introduce new legislative amendments to introduce greater flexibility and streamlining to the Strategic Development Zones provision of the Planning and Development Acts.
And the Minister for Finance has also indicated that the Ireland Strategic Investment Fund (ISIF) will support the delivery of housing-related enabling infrastructure in large scale priority development areas.
Conclusion
I hope that everything I have outlined here this evening communicates the priority the Government is placing on investing in Cork to secure its recovery.
I would like to thank you all for your hard work over these past number of years and for the local leadership that has contributed in no small way to Ireland’s economic recovery.
It is your hard work and commitment that will allow us to keep this recovery going.
Thank you and enjoy your evening.