Industry key to growth of €1.4bn marine economy

Linking Ireland’s ever- expanding blue economy to established industry can unlock significant potential for further growth, according to the head of the Marine Institute. Huge scope exists for established companies in the areas of pharmaceuticals, medical-technical, information and communications technology and software to identify niche opportunities in the ocean economy, chief executive Peter Heffernan said.

Fri, 26 Jun, 2015 - 01:00

Peter O’Dwyer

A wide-scale study on the country’s maritime economy due to be published at Seafest — a major festival to be held in Cork on July 11 — will include plans to establish such links.

“There are going to be niche opportunities for those [sectors] and particularly in areas of convergence where quite disparate sectors have the ability to overlap and come up with very innovative products and services together and working across those industrial boundaries on a very small island like Ireland,” he said.

Dr Heffernan was speaking at the Cork Chamber of Commerce business breakfast at the Clarion Hotel in Cork where he outlined the leading role Ireland is taking in researching the north Atlantic and the resultant economic opportunities.

Irish scientists and researchers have taken the lead in the largest mapping project in the world and continue to drive the nascent blue economy which aims to deliver turnover of €6.4bn by 2020. At present, the direct economic value of Ireland’s ocean economy is €1.4bn or about 0.8% of GDP — a figure that lags behind competitors, according to the Marine Institute chief.

Economic activity has grown in the past four years, however, outpacing general levels of economic growth and delivering a turnover of €4.5bn at present.

“The growth is outpacing the general economy and we’re currently at €4.5bn turnover which is a nice trajectory towards 2020 and €6.4bn. We’ve come out of a period of a very deep economic crash and recession in Ireland but the maritime sector is emerging strongly along the portfolio of sectors and it gives us confidence that the momentum is building,” said Dr Heffernan.