BILL CLINTON commands huge fees for public speaking, but he is believed to have attended last October’s Global Ireland Forum at Dublin Castle, and organised two forums in New York yesterday to encourage investment in Ireland, all for the love of the Emerald Island.
Mr Clinton briefed perhaps 100 members of the Global Irish Forum on an earlier, closed session with some of America’s top investors. He complimented Taoiseach Enda Kenny “for reaching out to the diaspora everywhere”.
“One of the hi-tech guys talked about how great Ireland is for hi- tech,” the former president said. “Another said: ‘It’s not just a great base for Europe. It’s also a great place for jumping into Africa.”
Mr Kenny noted repeatedly that Europe represents a market of half a billion people, with another 1.2 billion on the periphery, including some African countries with a 6 per cent growth rate. “Prime minister Kenny was rhapsodic about the young people of Ireland,” Mr Clinton recounted.
At a reception for the Irish Business Organisation of New York on Wednesday night, Mr Kenny said: “Our young people can stand on any stage around the world with confidence and project the image of a country of which they can be truly proud.”
If there was “any country well positioned to beat the laws of economics”, Mr Clinton said, it was Ireland. “So I’ll let them make their case.”
The former US president scattered facts and figures through his folksy hard sell. “This is not some pie in the sky deal,” he said. The Irish government “have taken all the tough decisions. They are sitting there with a 10-year perspective of still having the youngest work force. It’s nuts not to take advantage. The payoff over the next decade will be big. So go to it.”
Mr Kenny couched his argument more formally, but just as forcefully. “I want to give you one loud, clear message that our country has turned around,” he said.
“Our ship of state is now heading in the right direction and Ireland is open for business. And there might never be a better time to take advantage of it.”
Ted Smyth, an Irish-born vice- president of McGraw Hill publishers, called the investors’ session “by far the best turnout for an Irish economic gathering ever”.
Those who already had business in Ireland would continue, he predicted. Those who did not would explore the opportunities.
“It will start a buzz in the US, that you need to put Ireland on your radar.”
Members of the Irish network who have attended at least a half dozen economic pep rallies in recent years said it is different this time. “Clearly there is much more momentum,” said Paul Quinn, a Washington-based attorney. “The current government is a team of very articulate people. They have a message and a good story to tell.” Bloomberg, CNN and Reuters all covered yesterday’s conference.
Jack Bagley, who heads an energy and economic consultancy group, said that “unlike Farmleigh,” a conference held under the previous government, the current government had followed through on the event at Dublin Castle. Members of the network in the US receive regular newsletters from the Department of Foreign Affairs.
Mr Kenny emphasised how much more competitive the Irish economy had become, with labour costs set to decrease “20 per cent relative to the euro area as a whole between 2008 and 2013”.
Property was “significantly more affordable . . . down 50 per cent on average in the residential property sector”.
Irish exports are booming, he continued, “more than 100 per cent of GDP last year”.
The Taoiseach vaunted the soon-to-be-launched “action plan for jobs” which, he said, will create 100,000 jobs over the next five years.
Another programme, called “pathways to work” will ensure that the unemployed are offered training to develop new skills. Under a third project, “Succeed in Ireland”, people who generate new jobs in Ireland will receive a job creator fee.
“Those of you here today who are Irish, or of Irish ancestry – you know what I am talking about,” Mr Kenny said.
“You know how determined we as a nation can be. Once we put our minds to something, we see it through. Our DNA means that we understand interconnectedness and interdependence.
“We have lived over the centuries with challenges and hardship. We are not afraid and do not lack courage.”