Speech by the Taoiseach Mr. Enda Kenny T.D., at the Dublin Chamber of Commerce Annual Dinner 9th October 2014 Dublin Convention Centre

Good evening ladies and gentlemen.

It is a great pleasure to join you once again at your Annual Dinner.

I am delighted to share the platform with Sir Alex Ferguson this evening. Sir Alex, you are most welcome to Dublin.

I want to thank Martin Murphy and Gina Quin for extending the invitation to me, on your behalf. The Chamber, as with other chambers around the country, is a powerful force for bringing businesses together to work towards a common good. I want to congratulate you on another year of success.

As well as being President of Dublin Chamber, Martin undertakes a number of other roles, including being Chair of the Government’s Labour Market Council. Martin, I want to thank you and your fellow members for the great work you are doing.

Since I spoke to this event last year we have seen much progress.

Jobs are being created. Unemployment is falling steadily.

Economic growth this year is strong and consumer confidence is rebounding after many difficult years.

And most importantly, Ireland exited the EU/IMF bailout at the end of last year.

None of this happened by accident. It was the careful implementation of our recovery plan matched with the sacrifice and understanding of the Irish people.

Post bailout we now have more flexibility in managing the national finances and the economy.

But today we face a very different set of challenges.

We have the problems resulting from a growing economy.

Thanks to the strong economic performance this year, next week’s Budget will be broadly neutral with economic growth helping us to hit our targets.
However, we still have a large deficit, a high level of public debt, and an unacceptable unemployment rate of 11.1%.

In this context the current chorus of opposition calls to abolish charges and taxes, and to reverse necessary decisions to control spending is economic and social madness.

Instead any flexibility we have will be focused on work and workers.

By incentivising jobs we can help secure the recovery and rebuild a sustainable economy.

This is in the best interest of workers, their families, and the State services reliant on their taxes.

We can never return to the boom bust economic model that devastated families and services.

We must rebuild an economy based on the values of the Irish people and not of the hollow Celtic Tiger.

An economy and society that rewards work, enterprise and effort.
In this economy I want our young people to know that they can build successful careers with fulfilling lives. That their efforts are lauded, not penalised.

I believe that the 52% tax rate introduced by the previous Government is anti-employment and anti-enterprise.

It undermines the incentive to work, to do over-time, to start a business. It makes it harder to attract home the 350,000 people who have left our shores because of the recession.

Next week’s budget will be the first step of a multi-annual plan to reduce the 52% rate on low- and middle-incomes. It will improve the competitiveness of our tax regime in a way that strengthens the economic recovery.

We will also announce further reforms to our social protection and tax systems for lower paid workers to make sure that work pays more than welfare.

Analysis by the ESRI suggests that 60% of unemployed men and women with children face significant financial disincentives to return to work, and some are actually better off staying on the dole.

This is a huge waste of taxpayers’ money; but more importantly it is a huge waste of the talent and skills of our people. People want to work; we should never make it a financial sacrifice.

These reforms alone are likely to add 15,000 jobs to the economy by 2018 over and above existing projections.

We will not rest until we get everyone back into jobs.

The goal of returning to full employment is not just a cold economic target, it’s essential for the well being of our society.

Everyone in this room knows the value of work, what a gift it is to be able to offer someone a job, and equally how gut-wrenching it is to take it away.

Up and down this country I have met people, young and old, who have experienced the euphoria of getting a job.

It’s not just about the pay-cheque; it’s about their sense of worth, their place in the world, their contribution to their family, community and country.

This has been the goal from day one of Government: to be the best small country in the world for business, to raise a family and to grow old with dignity.

In making Ireland a better location for enterprise and jobs we have focused on improving the availability of skills.

We have also made a lot of progress on improving the competitiveness of the economy with Ireland moving back up the international ranks.

We are improving access to finance for business and we expect to formally launch in the coming weeks the new Strategic Banking Corporation of Ireland which will make €500 million of new credit available to Irish SMEs.

When I ask entrepreneurs and investors why they choose Ireland they often cite the passion of the Irish, the mix of skills available here and the supportive business environment.

All of these advantages are equally as important as our very attractive and transparent corporation tax rate of 12.5%.

It remains, and will remain, a cornerstone of Irish industrial policy.
I mention this as there has been much discussion about important reforms in the area of corporation tax amongst multinational profits.

You have all followed the recent announcements of the OECD Base Erosion and Profit Shifting project or as you know it the BEPS.

At its heart BEPS is a simple concept. It is about trying to better align taxing rights with real economic substance.

In other words companies should be taxed where they have their substantive operations.

As you know better than most Ireland has not been and will never be a brass-plate location.

We only have and want real substantive foreign direct investment the kind that brings real jobs.

That’s why I believe that reform in this area offers more opportunities for Ireland than risks.

At 12.5%, Ireland has the lowest general corporate tax rate in the OECD and this Government, and I as Taoiseach, are committed to maintaining it.

As international tax loopholes progressively get closed down, our low general corporation tax rate will become even more attractive to business.

Ireland’s package of tax, skills, and the reputation for being business friendly is a huge advantage that other countries will struggle to match.

Indeed as we continue to improve our offering for knowledge based investment, R&D and intellectual property I believe we can attract more foreign investment with the potential for thousands of additional jobs.

This has the opportunity to benefit the Dublin region as it attracts a significant amount of foreign direct investment as befits an international city region of its size.

The transformation of the Docklands has been a fantastic achievement and has acted as a magnet for investment and jobs. It has already developed the reputation of the Silicon Docks given the cluster of digital companies in the area.

The Government was happy to approve to the designation of this area as a Strategic Development Zone to fast-track future development and I look forward to the next wave of investment and jobs in the docklands.

The Dublin Chamber is to be commended for its role in developing our enterprise economy through its partnership with Dublin City Council on the ‘Activating Dublin’ programme.

Helping people to start new businesses and to trade online will create more jobs for Dublin and will build a more dynamic and resilient enterprise environment in the region.

Recently introduced reforms by the Government will see more autonomy for the Councils. The introduction and retention of the Local Property Tax will see some of them becoming essentially self funding.

The Councils and their Councillors will now have real responsibility for local business and domestic taxes and how to use those resources for the best interests of the city.

The Government also established a new network of Local Enterprise Offices across the country. In partnership with Enterprise Ireland it will give local Councils real influence over the economic and business development of the city.

It has never been easier for Dubliners to set up their own business with the help of Local Enterprise Offices. Encouraging a new sense of entrepreneurship is a key pillar in our plan to get Ireland working again.

Approved by Government this week and launched this morning by Minister Richard Bruton was the State’s first ever comprehensive national plan for entrepreneurship. It aims to create an extra 93,000 jobs from start-up companies in the next five years.

These are all long overdue reforms that, if embraced, can lay the seeds for an improved and more collaborative approach between the business community and Local Councils for the economic development of the city.

It is a recipe for innovation and local leadership. The Dublin Chamber of Commerce has already proved that the ambition and ability is there to take this city forward.
There are of course many problems facing the city that require a national approach. The current property bottleneck is causing housing issues for the people of Dublin.

The Government has a plan to triple the output of housing by 2020. A part of that plan was the Planning Bill published last week which contained a number of carrot and stick tools to incentivise activity again.

Conclusion
It is clear that we are still living with the consequences of the crash.

There are no easy options no easy policies that can undo the scale of the damage inflicted by bad governance and bad political choices during the bad years of the Celtic Tiger.

We have a plan for securing Ireland’s recovery. It is working.

We need to better support work and workers. We need to realise the vision of an enterprise economy.

An economy that works for the people of Ireland. That provides for the next generation.

We are almost there.

We will see it though.

We will get Ireland working again.

Thank You.