Plenty of positives yield hope for year ahead

THE furore over the letters sent by the Revenue Commissioners to pensioners has dominated media coverage over the past week and has elicited a very negative reaction from many quarters.

While none of us like to receive a letter from that particular institution and very few of us like to pay tax, the Revenue Commissioners have a statutory obligation to collect taxes.

Those pensioners who earn an income above a certain amount should realise that this implies a tax liability, just as those in the workforce who earn a certain amount also realise that there is a tax liability.

It is unfortunate that this issue arose in a week when some very good news on the Irish economy emerged. Last week, the IDA released its report for 2011 which made for pleasant reading amidst the gloom and negativity currently dominating so much of our discourse.

Last year, the IDA created over 13,000 new jobs and continued to attract investment from some of the world’s leading companies. In total, IDA-supported companies account for 146,000 direct jobs in the economy, and it is estimated another 102,000 jobs are supported by those jobs indirectly.

In the current bleak labour market, this is a good news story and shows that Ireland is still an attractive location for multinational investment and that the IDA is still doing a very good job in selling Ireland overseas, despite the much more competitive global backdrop for mobile investment.

The IDA’s job has been made easier by the much more positive international press that the country is now attracting. This is in marked contrast to this time last year, when the key task facing multinational executives was to convince their overseas parent that Ireland was still a functioning economy and still a good place in which to do business.

The Government has to take some credit for the turnaround in the external view of Ireland over the past year, but the IDA has also clearly played a role.

Looking ahead it will obviously continue to be very challenging for the IDA to attract new investment and hold on to existing investment, but it is incumbent on all of us who travel overseas to act as an ambassador and convince potential investors that Ireland is a good place in which to locate.

The talent pool available, the corporation tax rate and the track record of companies already operating here are regarded as the three most important attributes for Ireland to continue to be successful in this arena.

Policymakers must continue to do their utmost to ensure those three attributes are preserved and enhanced.

The other piece of good news over the past week came from Bord Bia.

The state agency estimates that food and drink exports increased by almost €1 billion or 12% last year to reach €8.85bn. This shows again just how important the agri-food sector is to our economy and how it is now coming in to its own.

Bord Bia appears to be doing Trojan work in helping companies break into export markets. These companies tend to be labour intensive and source the bulk of their inputs within the Irish economy. As such, they have a very high value-added component and also make a strong contribution to rural economies.

Over the past year I have had the pleasure of meeting many of those companies through my involvement with Love Irish Food, and I am bowled over with what I experience. These firms are run by passionate people who believe in excellence and who apply an incredible level of innovation to their companies. It is a sector that still has incredible growth potential and thankfully this is now being realised by most sensible people.

On the back of this performance, average farm incomes are estimated to have increased by 27% last year. It couldn’t happen to a better bunch of people. Long may it continue.