We need to better harness the diaspora

The employment numbers reported last Thursday by the Central Statistics Office should be a boon to business confidence across all sectors of the economy; more people gainfully employed and fewer people out of work, more wages to be spent in the domestic economy and an upward tick on the tax returns for the exchequer.

Not much to dislike there. There is even the beginning of a silver lining for the long-term unemployed; construction, one of the only sectors with a real opportunity for many of these individuals, is showing a net gain in employment for the first time in five-and-a half years.

Momentum in the economy has been evident for a while, given that we’re into our third consecutive year of GDP growth.

But there’s been scepticism on whether this would have a material impact on the jobs market. We’ve now had four consecutive quarters of annual employment growth; so the flow-through of economic activity into job creation is now beyond doubt.

The question now is how to capitalise on this steady, but modest growth. What can we do to provide the real acceleration in jobs creation? We know that job creation is the pathway to resolve the public finances, so this really deserves our full and unrelenting attention.

Not surprisingly, the unions are quick off the mark with a predictable mantra of increased investment and a jacking up of the tax rates to finance it. Just as confidence returns and people might be encouraged to loosen their purse strings we’re being asked to implement measures to take the cash — which could be spent spend on the local economy — and give it to the State to invest. Not an especially encouraging or imaginative response to the now very tangible green shoots of recovery.

However, beyond the simple blunt measures we can expect to hear emanating from Parnell Square and the equally predictable and completely contrary response from their counterparts on Baggot St; there’s little by way of new thinking on the agenda.

The economy and employment face more opportunity that at any point for the last 10 years. The world economy is improving. The outlook for our major trading partners, the UK, Europe and the US, are all improving. We have a global brand that was damaged by the excesses of the late noughties, but has emerged stronger than ever by our fortitude and successes in the last five years. We are well positioned in critical knowledge-led sectors and we have more of our strongest products active in overseas markets than ever before. It is these products and their market value that we can use to really accelerate both economic and employment growth.

The products I’m talking about are our people. In amongst the good news of the latest CSO figures lies continuing evidence of mass migration from Ireland. Our young folk head off to seek and make their fortunes abroad and this is regularly reported with regret, almost with shame. But we should celebrate. We need to recognise that the future does not consist of the Irish as an independent, self-sufficient, stay-at-home island race. The future is an open, internationally mobile, engaged and connected people, using their innate entrepreneurial skills and consummate diplomacy to broaden the economic frontier of our country, both at home and abroad.

We have no future on our own. We have the very best future as a niche but critical axis of the global economy.

There are schemes and initiatives having an impact out there. The Gathering has shown that a modest budget and a big hoorah can go a long way. Job numbers in tourism and hospitality are significantly up.

However, there is no co-ordinated response. Beyond a simple call to ‘come back for the craic’, what are we really doing to leverage this massive international resource — the Irish diaspora? Old Irish, New Irish, we’re international people now. There are a wealth of networks and communities that these people inhabit and work in. Let’s join them up and work together.

Whether we focus on exporting Irish enterprise abroad or foreign enterprise back home the net effect is the same — more jobs in Ireland. We face better prospects than at any time for a decade. Let’s not blow it this time.

— Richard Eardley is MD of Hays Ireland.