IBEC and their constant waffling
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IBEC (Irish Business and Employers Confederation) released some shocking news today. Apparantly, the current strength of the Euro against the Dollar and Sterling is damaging exports. DUH… Who would have thought that? IBEC’s senior economist says that the Euro has strengthened 15% against Sterling and 20% against the dollar in the past year.
about 20% of exports from Ireland go to the US, or other dollar denominated regions, while the UK accounted for over 18% of exports last year. If the exchange rate situation does not ease over the coming months about 10% of the value of Irish exports will be eroded this year directly as a result of currency movements. We export over 80% of everything we produce and unless measures are taken to restore competitiveness job losses across a wide range of sectors are inevitable’
Mr O’Brien concluded ‘the priority for the policy makers and social partners in Ireland is to work harder than ever in our efforts to improve competitiveness. We must focus on reducing our costs and improving productivity in all sectors. Pay costs must be curtailed and further efforts are required to rein in big cost items such as energy.’
This IS all quite worrying for the Irish economy of course, and IBEC are only doing the job their members pay them to do. What I just can’t get my head around is statement like
“unless measures are taken to restore competitiveness job losses across a wide range of sectors are inevitable”
Job losses have been hitting the headlines quite regularly over the last 12 to 24 months. A lot of the job losses have had nothing to do with the currency markets. Ireland can’t compete with low cost economies where a lot of manufacturing companies are relocating to. Please Mr. O’Brien, tell us HOW can competitiveness be restored? Do you propose to create a new republic within Ireland? A republic where the cost of living is the same as that of Poland or Costa Rica?
“We must focus on reducing our costs and improving productivity in all sectors. Pay costs must be curtailed”
Please Mr. O’Brien, give us some practical examples of how this can be achieved. Please also sit down with the ordinary working man or woman and tell them that although their cost of living continues to rise, they should not expect any more compensation for their toils. Ensure that you pay the bare minimum and leave no extra for your employee. Sure what would they do with that extra money. They’d probably spend that extra money foolishly by buying goods and services in Ireland and supporting other businesses…. No, wait – that sounds like a sensible thing to do….
Or, maybe it’s all just a load of old waffle.
Image above adapted from original by : kankan
