Brand Ireland is not broken, insists Harney

WHILE Taoiseach Brian Cowen was finally uttering the dreaded R-word, Health Minister Mary Harney attempted to put a positive spin on things yesterday, insisting: “Brand Ireland is not broken.”

She also appeared to subtly defend PD legacy even as the party nears its demise.

Ms Harney acknowledged the turmoil being caused by the credit crunch, saying it would spell the end for a particular model of investment banking.

But she insisted it spelt neither the end of the markets nor of the Irish success story. “The Ireland story was never about replacing crony capitalism with casino capitalism. Ireland’s 20-year-old story is not a speculative play,” she told a lunch hosted by the Irish Brokers’ Association.

“It is, and has always been, about competing in international markets,” she said.

Such efforts were not about “greed or casino capitalism”, she said, but “honest-to-God hard work and deserved success”.

The PDs have repeatedly been accused of fostering a culture of greed over their time in government.

But without direct reference to the party, Ms Harney reiterated many of the PDs’ core beliefs, cautioning against excessive wage agreements and tax increases. “Do we really want to continue, in the domestic and protected sectors, to pay ourselves costs and wages at levels that make high-quality jobs impossible to win and sustain?” she asked.

“Do we want to burden the very job creation and investment we need with higher taxation in order to solve short-term problems?”

The answer to Ireland’s economic problems was “strategic resilience”, Ms Harney said.

“There are huge markets internationally for us to compete in and win: the pharmaceutical industry, medical devices, the high-end agri and food sector, information technology, communications, financial services, biotechnology, education services,” she said.

“None of these real markets have disappeared… [So] let the message go out: ‘Brand Ireland is not broken,’” Ms Harney said.