Bruton calls for new development model to lessen risk of emigration

FORMER taoiseach John Bruton has called for a wide-reaching new development model to be drawn up for Ireland’s future stability, warning that a return to so-called normality cannot be expected once the recession runs its full course.

Addressing the annual dinner of the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA Ireland) at Thomond Park, last night, Mr Bruton – who is EU ambassador to the US – said: “Ireland needs a new development model. The credit crisis is a symptom of a shift in the world economy that will not reverse itself. We need a new approach that faces realities as they are, not as we might wish them to be. Normal conditions, as we once thought them to be, were unsustainable and will not be returning, ever.”

Part of Mr Bruton’s vision is a system that manages to keep graduates in Ireland.