REMARKS BY PRESIDENT McALEESE AT A BUSINESS LUNCH HOSTED BY IRISH STATE AGENCIES
REMARKS BY PRESIDENT McALEESE AT A BUSINESS LUNCH HOSTED BY IRISH STATE AGENCIES MONDAY, 2ND MAY, 2011
Good afternoon and welcome to this Irish Business Luncheon.
Dia dhíbh a chairde. Goedemiddag, en welkom bij deze Ierse business lunch.
Martin and I are delighted to be here with you on our first engagement in Amsterdam. It is good to have the opportunity to meet so many leading Irish companies, their Dutch partners and other important members of the business community. You are all very welcome. Your presence is reassuring evidence of the vibrancy of the links between us and your desire to further deepen those ties.
Ireland and the Netherlands have a significant shared history but for the purposes of this lunch we are not going to start with William of Orange and the Battle of the Boyne but rather focus on the contemporary links which show Ireland and the Netherlands to be a really good fit for one another. It is easy to see why this exciting and culturally rich country has proved to be an inspiration for so many Irish people, a lure for Irish tourists and a dynamic place for Irish companies to do business.
Today’s lunch is organised by four Irish agencies that are key players in Team Ireland: Enterprise Ireland, who help companies develop exports; Bord Bia, who support food exports; Tourism Ireland who promote the very beautiful leisure destination that is Ireland; and IDA Ireland who promote the excellent business benefits that derive from locating in Ireland. In a united approach to promoting Ireland abroad, all the agencies work very closely with another essential component of Team Ireland, our Embassy network. That is certainly the case here as Ambassador Whelan can testify. Ironically I first visited Amsterdam almost thirty years ago to make a television programme about a young entrepreneurial and artistic Irish woman who had set up a very successful fashion business here. Europe’s economy was far from good back then and it is far from good now. Yet then and now the irrepressible human spirit produces entrepreneurial leaders of courage and determination who work hard to turn the odds in their favour. They do that thing that my grandmother always recommended - instead of waiting to get lucky, go out and make your own luck! We need people like you who are making their own luck through these tough times which impact particularly on open trading economies like Ireland and the Netherlands.
Yes we are certainly more sensitive than most to fluctuations in world trade following global slowdowns, a situation exacerbated in our own case by a disastrous property bubble of our own making, but it is precisely because we are so open and flexible that we are also well placed to benefit from the recovery. Ireland’s difficulties have featured a lot in media reports in recent times but those of you who do business in Ireland know that there is often a much fuller picture that is not captured in soundbites or on-the-hoof analysis. You know of the strong decisive steps being taken by the Irish Government to correct the public finances, to stabilize and reform our banking system, to improve competitiveness and to encourage growth.
Our recovery is underway and we do have some good news amidst the gloom. Ireland is seeing broad-based export growth, with the financial services, IT, telecommunications, food, medical devices, pharmaceutical and chemical sectors performing particularly well. The Netherlands is in fact our 6th largest partner in merchandise trade - Irish exports in goods to the Netherlands accounted for over €3 billion in 2010 as compared to some €2.2 billion in exports from the Netherlands to Ireland and you are our third largest partner in terms of traded services with the figure standing at over €11 billion. Dutch investment and employment creation in Ireland is also significant with 37 supported companies operating in Ireland. These figures are significant by any measure and importantly they are encouraging, for here is a successful, fluent and functioning mutual trade route for some to develop further and for others to join.
Given our small home market, a challenge for Irish companies is to choose their first export market carefully at an early stage of their development. The Netherlands has a lot to commend it as a sophisticated and business-friendly environment and a welcoming community. It makes an excellent first step for growing Irish companies seeking to build a base in continental Europe. It is the fifth largest market for Enterprise Ireland, and has seen an impressive 19% growth since 2008.
For food and drink exports in particular, the Netherlands is an important market, in fact the third most important export market in Europe. In 2010, Irish food and drink export sales to the Netherlands grew by an impressive 17% to reach €370m. The Dutch are also the highest per capita consumers of Irish beef - with high quality Irish beef the preferred choice of beef amongst Dutch retailers. But it is not all about food and drink - important and popular though they are…
Irish and Dutch firms continue to seal new partnerships. Mercury Engineering, for example, are working with Digital Realty on projects worth over €50 million to build two new data centres in the Amsterdam area for Terremark and Softlayer - all of whom are represented here today.
Ireland is home to 37 Dutch companies employing over 2,300 people, and IDA Ireland is focused on attracting further leading-edge investment from the life sciences, financial services, digital and technology sectors. Companies from these sectors invest in Ireland due to its unique combination of the 4 Ts: Talent, Track Record, Technology and Tax.
We have had some success in this regard, with foreign direct investment in Ireland increasing significantly over the last 12 months creating almost 11,000 new jobs. Almost 1,000
multi-national corporations have chosen Ireland as their strategic European base and many of these companies have gone on to expand their facilities in Ireland due to the profitability and success of the Irish operation, the positive, adaptable attitude of the workforce and the ready availability of highly educated, ambitious managers.
The Irish Government has also invested heavily in Research and Development, trebling our R&D spend over the past decade. Our national foundation for research, Science Foundation Ireland, has a specific focus on life sciences, attracting top researchers to Ireland and promoting world-class research activity in the country. These researchers are engaged in extraordinary work such as that being undertaken by Food for Health in University College Cork, which is developing tomorrow’s functional food ingredients and products from our dairy produce.
The free flow of ideas and the cross-fertilisation that comes with that are vital to success in this area. Research, development and innovation in Ireland is driven by an exceptional level of collaboration, at home and abroad, between industry, academia, Government and the regulatory authorities and I would like to particularly thank many of the Dutch representatives from national bodies and universities joining us here this afternoon.
As well as offering an attractive location for international business Ireland continues to welcome millions of tourists to its shores each year. Those who have been to Ireland know it as a happy place to visit with warm, friendly people, dramatic scenery, welcoming cities and towns and vibrant cultural traditions infused with music, dance, literature and art. The value has never been better, not just because of the cost, but because of the richness and depth of the visitor experience. Those who are already doing business in Ireland know that the friendly welcome extends beyond tourists to a warm, open and collaborative business atmosphere. Outbound passenger numbers from Dutch airports are rising bolstered by a 10% increase in air access from the Netherlands to Ireland this summer. I would urge those of you in the airline industry to continue to work with Tourism Ireland to develop more routes. They are very short-haul and give both the Irish and Dutch peoples the opportunity to open up their countries and cultures to one another.
This audience knows better than most how important those human relationships are to business. The handshake cannot be computer generated, nor can trust and respect. These we create person to person, shared meal to shared meal. These help us to make the new connections that open up new markets to us and new opportunities - opportunities for Irish and Dutch people to benefit from. It is my fervent wish that through today's event we can sow more seeds of warmth, trust, friendship, collaboration and optimism that will allow Irish-Dutch business relationships to forge even stronger links in the coming years.
As key influencers and decision makers, you are the men and women who are already making and shaping those links. Ireland is very grateful to each one of you and looks forward to many years of doing good business with you and through you. Enjoy the lunch and the company.
Thank you. Go raibh míle maith agaibh.