Cori conference told of role of business

TOMORROW’S FIRMS will play a more proactive role in shaping society, a conference hosted by the Conference of Religious in Ireland (Cori) was told yesterday.

Danny McCoy, director of policy with the employers’s federation, Ibec, said business would increasingly “be recognised as a source of economic, social and environmental progress”. He was addressing the annual Cori social policy conference, Making Choices, Choosing Futures: Ireland at a Crossroads.

He said if business was central to making choices for Ireland’s future, this could be a key factor in “future-proofing Ireland as a place that is good for business, thus protecting society from the dangers inherent for a small, regional economy” .

David Begg, general secretary of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions, criticised the large salaries and bonuses paid to some Irish chief executives. He cited one, David Drumm, chief executive of Anglo Irish Bank, who in a recent interview with the Financial Times said the Irish were realists and would tighten belts.

“Last year Mr Drumm received total emoluments of €5.59 million. Mr Drumm is a member of a golden circle of top business leaders, a kind of Celtic oligarchy.

“The problem is that the extraordinary inequality which this epitomises and the sheer injustice in the way people at different levels of society are treated is eroding social cohesion.”

He said the taxation of wealth “to put it at its most charitable, is underdeveloped” and called for the elimination of tax shelters except in cases where there was a proven economic objective.

He said tax exiles should be made stay out of the State.