Irish business at serious risk of losing its mojo

WHEN Michael Collins visited London he must have been impressed by the scale and sophistication of that city. After all, in that time the British Empire was at its zenith while Ireland was a poor offshoot that was a handy source of food and labourers for doing the roads.

Yes, it would have been easy for him to accept conventional wisdom of that period and let the Irish blend in to Britain.

How could he possibly imagine the creation of an independent economy, with its own grown up finance market capable of competing with the mights of Britain plc?

But he did. As Minister of Finance at the tender age of 29, he launched the first Irish Government Bond and stood up, in the face of ridicule, and made a stand on behalf of his Republic. Decades later Sean Lemass took corporate Ireland by the scruff and cajoled it into creating an airline, airports, electricity companies and so on.

These men’s legacies are being messed around with in 2011. Amid the turmoil stemming from a eurozone crisis, and a self-inflicted collapse of our banking system, Irish business is at risk of losing its mojo.

It is oh so easy to talk about London and New York being the answers to our economic and business questions. I watch as suitcase investment bankers traipse in and out of Dublin telling us little people how to sort out our affairs.

They are welcomed by officials who clearly believe a big global investment banking name is the safe option when choosing advisers to restructure our economy.

Here’s one voice who has no intention of bending at the knee to these trends. Ireland has the skills and nous to rebuild its shattered economy without making itself a backroom in the IMF edifice, or being an afterthought to someone in Brussels or Berlin.

She has made too many sacrifices to have them forgotten by myopic policymakers and others who think bypassing local institutions and heading off to London is the answer to everything. Instead of rushing to the arms of those oh-so-caring investment bankers abroad, we need to undertake a big reality check at home.

Where shall we start?

First up, could a senior politician stand up andsay he/she believes Ireland must have an independent and fully functioning capital markets centre that can be used to access equity and fixed income investment in support of Irish companies?

Could that announcement be accompanied by business leaders who say Ireland is a base from which they want to conquer world markets, using advanced trading and investment systems to tap global asset managers in support for their strategy?

Could we then, just maybe, develop a financial media that believe Irish business has true value for this country, instead of being the subject of endless lazy articles about executive pay? After that, might we cajole some of the diaspora in Europe and around global financial markets to take a stand behind an independent Irish stock and bond market that competes across global trading systems?

It is only if Ireland decides it wants to have an independent financial market that any chance exists of that being so.

The fixed income and equity markets, otherwise, will be swept away in a swarm of companies leaving Ireland at speed for reasons that, frankly, forget a big point. We didn’t make Ireland easily and some of us ain’t giving it up without a fight.

How ironic that the political party that gave us our first Minister for Finance now seems oblivious to the negative powers at play in Irish capital markets?

Joe Gill is director of research with Bloxham Stockbrokers, in the Republic of Ireland