An economy to rebuild - Horse deal a good lesson for Ireland
One shows what can be done; how we can overcome international competition to secure very significant victories on the global stage. The other, sadly, reveals a sense of something approaching defeat, a feeling of helplessness built on almost endless bad news, a lack of opportunity and, possibly worst of all, the feeling that we are trapped in a downward spiral that we will find very difficult to break out of.
The cheering, glass-half-full story details how China has chosen Ireland to help establish a multibillion-euro national equine centre in one of the country’s largest cities, Tianjin.
The facility, centred in a region with a population of just under 10m people, is expected to generate almost €40m in business for Ireland within three years, but surely it has the potential to be a springboard for so much more. The Tianjin Equine Culture City project, with a budget approaching €2bn, will help China to develop a horse-racing and breeding industry, and they have turned to Irish expertise; specifically the expertise of world leaders Coolmore Stud in Co Tipperary. Once again, the vision of the late Vincent O’Brien, John Magnier and, today, Aidan O’Brien has been mould-breaking. Coolmore already has breeding businesses in the US, Australia, and Ireland, and through these has developed the professionalism — and consistently successful racehorses — that made it possible to secure the Tianjin deal.
The world’s bloodstock industry is a cut-throat business and Coolmore has shown, over the decades, the acumen, business and horse skills, the courage, and imagination that would serve as a very fine example to the rest of us, whatever sphere we work in, as we try to remake this society and economy. We should do all we can to learn the lessons.
And we should express our thanks to the nameless and so often thankless officials who secured this deal. Though growth in China, at 8.1%, has fallen to its slowest rate in nearly three years, it gives us another toehold in the market that will define the rest of this century. We should exploit to the full our great horse culture and the skills we have around that industry to make sure we are all part of that story.
Unfortunately, and unavoidably, the glass-half-empty counterpoint is the credit union survey which translates the grim statistics of economic dependency into the everyday lives of people struggling to make ends meet and sustain a belief in this country’s future.
The survey demonstrates that nearly half of us feel that we are “just living to work”, and that two out of five of us think that their family’s future lies outside of Ireland.
Though on a slightly different plane, a great proportion of people expressed growing concern around transport costs. This specific issue will have to be addressed immediately as it plays such an important part in business, people’s working lives, and job creation.
Empty cheerleading is as pointless as it is offensive but the horses-to-China deal is neither. It shows what can be achieved and if it can inspire and engender some optimism. Its value will be far greater than just economic. It may not outweigh the grim credit union survey but it points to the most appropriate response.
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