THE IRISH economy faced, and later overcame, many tough challenges in the 1980s. Unemployment and emigration rose as growth contracted and the national debt soared. One former Central Bank governor, the late Maurice Doyle, later remarked of those testing times that Ireland had the statistics of a third world country.
Ireland Inc’s international image was poor. The Industrial Development Authority (IDA) recognised that and acted to change how overseas investors might see Ireland as a location for foreign direct investment.
The IDA identified some of Ireland’s key strengths: a young and well-educated workforce in plentiful supply in a member state of the European Union. It then ran a highly successful international advertising campaign: “The Young Europeans”. This featured a group photograph of graduates from UCD and Trinity College with the slogan: “Hire them before they hire you”. The IDA, in its promotional efforts to attract mobile foreign direct investment, had a unique selling point in pitching for companies to locate here.
More than two decades later IDA Ireland is facing an even more challenging outlook. The economy is in recession and Ireland Inc’s international image has been greatly damaged by mismanagement of the property bubble and the resulting banking crisis. This time, IDA Ireland has launched an equally ambitious advertising campaign to keep Ireland at the forefront of investors’ minds as the major economies emerge from recession. “Innovation comes naturally” is the campaign theme which underlines the potential of Ireland’s skilled and flexible workforce to bring creativity to any business challenge. The campaign will feature some of the top executives of major multinationals located here, including Microsoft Ireland and Facebook, outlining the benefits of doing business in Ireland.
This weekend sees the launch of an imaginative initiative, the Global Irish Economic Forum, hosted by the Government. It is loosely modelled on the annual World Economic Forum in Davos and has brought together some of the most influential members of the global Irish community – including business and cultural figures with a strong connection to this country. The forum is designed to harness some of the ideas and energies of the Irish diaspora to assist recovery.
Ireland’s economic difficulty is also Ireland’s opportunity to establish a formal worldwide Irish network: a unique and invaluable human resource in a globalised world beset by economic uncertainty.