THE GOVERNMENT and business leaders have announced a range of initiatives to attract foreign investment and hundreds of thousands of visitors into Ireland by forging closer connections with our global diaspora.
The two-day Global Irish Economic Forum being held in Dublin Castle is part of an ambitious strategy to use Ireland’s cultural heritage to help rebuild its battered economy.
Among key outcomes of the forum so far are:
- Plans for a global Irish “homecoming”, billed as the biggest tourism initiative ever staged in Ireland, to attract up to 325,000 extra visitors to Ireland in 2013;
- An offer from 100 top expatriate business leaders from around the world to contribute their experience and time by serving on State boards for free over the next five years;
- A new Irish social networking site – WorldIrish.com – which its founders say has the potential to connect millions of Irish people, or those with an affinity to the country;
- An annual State-run diaspora awards ceremony to recognise “outstanding contributions” or distinguished service made to Ireland and Irish communities.
Speaking at the event yesterday, Taoiseach Enda Kenny said be believed a “new age” of prosperity lay ahead for Ireland by working in partnership with the Irish diaspora, estimated at 70 million in number.
Through decisive action to rebuild the economy, Mr Kenny pledged Ireland would be the first of the three bailed out euro zone countries to “wave goodbye to the IMF”.
He said the country may return to the markets as soon as next year and will, in time, be upgraded by the credit rating agencies.
“We’re going to meet all our targets,” Mr Kenny told Bloomberg Television following yesterday’s forum. “So we don’t contemplate default. We want to pay our way fully and completely and we will do that.”
There has been criticism of the lack of follow-through of many proposals tabled at a previous meeting of the Global Irish Economic Forum in Farmleigh in 2009.
Tánaiste Eamon Gilmore acknowledged more could have been done, but insisted a new high-powered implementation group will ensure this forum’s ideas are speedily implemented.
This group – to be co-chaired by the Taoiseach and Tánaiste – will meet twice yearly to maximise the benefits of the forum.
“We are mobilising people with Irish connections who are of Irish heritage and who are leaders in the corporate world to help us in our efforts to bring about economic recovery and to get investments and jobs into this country,” Mr Gilmore said.
While there was plenty of optimism on display yesterday, some delegates also underlined the scale of the challenge facing Ireland in kick-starting the economy.
Chairman of Goldman Sachs Peter Sutherland said Ireland was “deluding itself” if it thought it had a top-quality education system.
He said more investment was needed, in particular into a single third level institute which would be able to compete with some of the best in the world.
The forum continues in Dublin Castle today, where former US president Bill Clinton will speak on the theme of Ireland and the global Irish.
Other delegates attending include James Hogan, chief executive of Etihad Airlines; Irial Finan, executive vice-president of the Coca-Cola Company; and PJ Hough, corporate vice-president of Microsoft.