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Speaking Notes

Peter Brennan

President, Dublin Chamber of Commerce

4th February 2010

WELCOME

Gina, thank you for the kind and indeed informative

introduction.

I admit I am a bit of a hybrid.

Lord Mayor of Dublin, Taoiseach, Deputy, Presidents of

Dublin North and Cork Chambers, members, your guests and

friends; you are all most welcome to the AGM Dinner of

Dublin Chamber.

The botany economists – those who are searching for green

shoots – need look no further than Dublin Chamber for signs

of an economic recovery. Not only did this dinner sell out,

there is huge demand for our networking events.

The good news is that the recession is over, at least as far as

support for the Dublin Chamber is concerned.

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DUBLIN CHAMBER

I am going to talk about one issue tonight: the need to

transform the Dublin City Region in 2010.

But first, I will say a few brief words about Dublin Chamber.

The Chamber’s Unique Selling Proposition is the

membership. We ran nearly 100 events last year with over

10,000 people participating. The members want relevant,

value for money and accessible networking opportunities and

Dublin Chamber is probably the only business organisation in

the country which excels in this regard.

We could not survive without generous sponsors, including

Ulster Bank. Thanks again to Robert Gallagher.

Nor could the Chamber function without the voluntary

support and advice provided by Council members who

generously give of their time.

In this regard I wish to acknowledge on behalf of the Council

and Executive of Dublin Chamber the hard work, progressive

leadership and personable style of last year’s President, PJ

Timmins, CEO of Clerys.

Another essential factor behind the success of the Chamber

is its democracy. All officers are elected by the Council

members, who in turn must be elected. This gives the

Chambers the necessary legitimacy to represent the interests

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of the Dublin business community. It also gives Council

members a taste of electioneering. That said, I would not go

as far as to say that we have any budding TDs in our midst.

I would like to congratulate Imelda Reynolds of Beauchamps

Solicitors, who was elected Vice-President of the Chamber

earlier at our AGM. Patrick Coveney of Greencore was

elected Deputy Vice-President and Niall Feely of Eircom is the

Chamber’s Treasurer.

This is an opportunity for me to welcome the following who

joined the Council at our AGM earlier this evening.

Four new Council members are: Gerry Killen, Oxigen, Paul

McGennis, BCM Hanby Wallace, Michele Connolly, KPMG and

Ciaran Ennis, IBM; and the six re-elected Council members

are: Liam Kavanagh, Irish Times, Greg Clark, Digicom, Regina

Moran, Fujitsu, David Pierce, Ulster Bank, Grainne Byrne, gbc

Public Relations, and Dermot Breen, Tesco Ireland. In

addition, Joanne Gillen, Bid Management Services, Paul

Hallam, PM Group, and David Wells, Acuity SOS have also

joined the Council.

TRANSFORMATION

For the Chinese this is the year of the Golden Tiger, a distant

first cousin I believe of the Celtic Tiger; on the mother’s side.

The Chinese Tiger symbolises courage, activity and self-

assuredness.

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These characteristics need to be re-instilled into our

economy.

We should not tippex out what the Celtic Tiger has done for

the Dublin City Region.

For example, Transport 21 is delivering.

This year the M50 upgrade will be completed; we will have

motorways connecting all our major cities; the Cherrywood

LUAS will be the fourth light rail line opened; the Macken

Street Bridge is open (albeit with daft traffic restrictions); a

revised Dublin Bus routing plan is to be implemented during

the year; the long-awaited Dublin Integrated Ticket is also

due to make an appearance; and Terminal 2 - a world class

facility - opens in November.

The Metro North and DART Interconnector projects will be

through the planning stage by end-year. These projects,

when completed, will transform the public transport

experience in the city.

In addition, the National Convention Centre opens later this

year. I am delighted to announce that the Chamber

President’s Annual Dinner will be held in this iconic building

in October.

The new Aviva Stadium (or Lansdowne Road as the blazers

like me still call it) is another magnificent addition to the city

landscape, as is the Grand Canal Theatre.

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So by the end of this year, our city infrastructure will be in

the Premier Division. There should be no more talk of third

world infrastructure.

We need to acknowledge the Government’s significant

investment and the vast improvement in the City Region’s

backbone.

MAYOR

The event with the potential to change Dublin forever is the

election for a Dublin Mayor and in this regard I welcome the

most recent announcement from Minister Gormley that he

intends to hold this long overdue election this summer.

I have my doubts about the realisation of this timing. So

much so that I will give up golf for a month if the

Government meets this deadline.

You may well ask why are we so interested in the election.

The reason is simple.

Dublin businesses pay some €650 million, a full third of the

day-to-day costs of the four Dublin local authorities by way of

commercial rates – much more if waste, water and other

charges are added. Hence we have a significant interest in

the Mayor’s budget which could be some €2.5 billion, and

the spending priorities to be delivered by some 10,000

employees.

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In addition to the traditional roles, we want the Mayor

made responsible for transport and spatial planning; for

traffic management; for the economic and strategic

development of the Dublin City Region; for enterprise

development; for tourism; and for crisis management.

This is a serious job of national importance and it is my

contention the role of Dublin Mayor requires a person who

has senior political and leadership credentials matching the

importance of the portfolio.

We will campaign on the basis of a manifesto - with the

transformation of the City Region a core priority - to make

sure the Chamber’s agenda is centre stage of the election

campaign.

The Chamber will support candidates who share our strong

ambition and vision for the Dublin City Region.

LOCAL AUTHORITY EFFICIENCY REVIEW

Local Government is big business, and like any business

needs to keep its costs in check.

We were delighted to see that our budget submission

proposal for a Bord Snip Nua approach to local government

was accepted by Government and announced by Minister

Gormley last December.

I earnestly hope that the Minister will respond promptly and

comprehensively to the findings of the Local Authority

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Review Group and that the changes required are approved as

part of Budget 2011.

We await with a degree of anticipation the publication by

Minister Gormley of the White Paper on Local Government –

a document which has been ready for the past year. The

work of the local authority efficiency review will take place in

a vacuum unless this White Paper is published.

The Dublin Chamber’s submission to the Review Group will

be informed by best practice in the delivery of local services.

In doing so, we will benchmark Dublin against other City

Regions.

That said, I am reminded of Mark Twain who remarked:

‘fewer things are harder to put up with than the annoyance of

a good example’.

The business community will continue to be a very significant

source of revenue to local authorities.

We cannot expect the delivery of quality services required by

a modern, dynamic and growing City Region without taxation

on all users, and that includes households.

Therefore the Review Group should take account of the

many recommendations on local authority finance set out in

the report of the Commission on Taxation.

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Dublin Chamber is in broad agreement with the key

proposals to broaden the tax base and in so doing to raise

additional funds for the local authorities.

Furthermore, I would have an expectation that the merging,

consolidation and divesting of some services such as water,

waste, and possibly debt collection, to the private sector

will reduce costs through economic efficiencies brought

about by greater economies of scale and competitive

tendering.

Once this happens, there is no reason – if the local taxation

tax base is widened and if some services are out-sourced –

that business rates should not fall.

I would be disappointed, if over time, a 20% cut in

commercial rates was not achieved. We should start

planning for such a scenario.

What is now at issue is the determination of a Dublin City

Region local authority structure that is ‘fit for purpose’ for

the needs of the citizens of Dublin and for the many

employers who play a key part in providing employment to

over half a million people.

DUBLIN CITY REGION

City Regions are now the driving forces for national economic

recovery. A national recovery is almost completely

dependent on a Dublin economic recovery.

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Dublin is not a one shot economy; we have enough clubs in

the bag, but we are not scoring as well as we should. Too

many three putts are destroying our competitiveness card.

We want to be positive about Dublin, but this has to be

balanced by constructive comment.

We claim we are the best – we continually strive to be at the

forefront of economic activity - but when put to the test,

there are currently too many areas in which we fail to live up

to the billing.

We must harness the best of what Dublin has to offer, but be

realistic and honest about our short-comings. It is only

through a process of identifying problems and devising

solutions that we can truly become the world class region

that we aspire to be.

There is a great degree of goodwill about. Dublin City

Councils, the Lord Mayor, third-level colleges, Enterprise

Ireland and other State development agencies are all keen to

contribute and are working on specific initiatives. But given

our public sector structures, I would argue that much of this

effort is not leveraged to best effect.

Part of the problem of course, is that nobody is politically

responsible for the Dublin City Region economy. No overall

coherent economic development strategy exists, nor is one

planned which has wide stakeholder and cross-agency

support, and with a multi-annual matching budget.

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This will change, hopefully, with the election of Dublin’s

Mayor.

D 21

The members of Dublin Chamber believe quite strongly that

the Dublin City Region needs an economic stimulus package.

I submit we need a D21 - not a new postal area - but a

coherent vision and plan to drive investment and provide

support for the enterprise sector with the single aim of

exploiting the full potential of the Dublin City Region.

We need to identify where the new jobs will come from and

whether we are positioned to take advantage of ever-

changing global trends.

We need to get Ireland off its embarrassing 22nd position in

the world competitive league table. Remember not that long

ago we were ranked 5th best globally.

And most importantly, we need to require all commercial

banks who benefit from the State guarantee to provide

working capital to the city’s entrepreneurs.

I would urge you Taoiseach and the Government to support

this D21 initiative which is aimed at supporting business as

the engine of creativity, innovation and sustainable growth.

Even in these times of constrained resources, it is possible to

deliver a stimulus package not just in terms of extra spending

but by re-assessing current spending and trends. What we

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need is a highly targeted and focussed plan which aims to use

resources in the areas where they can have the greatest

impact.

The only beneficiaries from what some are calling our current

ostrich-like approach to our competitiveness deficits are

competitor City Regions abroad.

Taoiseach, bring us to Farmleigh and challenge the best

brains in the Dublin business community to drive a

programme of recovery for the Dublin City Region.

TALK TO THE TAOISEACH

Taoiseach, we asked our members over the past weeks to

indicate the single most important thing the Government

could do to improve their profitability and long-term

sustainability. We also sought feedback about what

Government could do to improve the competitive position of

the Dublin City Region.

This feedback, which will feed into the D21 initiative, is both

instructive and informative in terms of what the Dublin

business community expects Government to do to get the

Dublin economy back on its feet, and what we the business

community want to contribute to the process.

Taoiseach, if we get your support for a Farmleigh Summit on

the Dublin City Region – with the aim to advance the D21

initiative - this would give all parties an opportunity to

explore the feasibility of the views of the Dublin business

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community, and for Government and the Dublin business

community to plot our collective route out of the recession.

CONCLUSIONS

A key influence on the behaviour of savers, consumers and

investors is confidence, or the lack of it, as has been the case

recently.

We should therefore be doing all in our respective powers to

re-instil confidence as a top priority.

The Government’s courageous decisions on NAMA (with EU

State aid decisions eagerly awaited), financial regulatory

reform, the banking enquiry, the Exchequer finances and

facing down the public sector trade unions are all to be

welcomed in this regard.

The challenge now is to focus our collective effort to secure

the full potential of the Dublin City Region and to

communicate our successes at home and abroad.

With this goal in mind, I have outlined a number of action

points for Government to help transform the Dublin City

Region in 2010.

To reiterate, these may be summarised as follows:

As part of a package on local government reform,

publish the legislation to facilitate the holding of the election

for a Dublin Mayor in June, and provide that the office has

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strong executive powers, commensurate autonomy, and a

matching budget;

Secondly, respond comprehensively to the findings of

the Local Authority Review Group and ensure that the

resources required are approved as part of Budget 2011;

Thirdly, implement the recommendations of the

Commission of Taxation on the financing of local authorities;

and

Finally, and perhaps most importantly, bring forward an

economic stimulus package – a D21 for the Dublin City

Region.

Let us harness our collective endeavour to make 2010 a

transformational year which sees us learning from the

mistakes of the past with a view to positioning the Dublin

City Region as a world class place to work, rest and play.

While we are largely pre-occupied by the economy, the

people of Haiti have problems on an entirely different scale.

We need to turn our compassion into something practical.

Hence, with the co-operation of Concern, we are organising a

collection for the people of this devastated country.

Please contribute generously.

For its part Dublin Chamber is contributing €1,000 to

Concern.

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Please enjoy the rest of the evening, and I wish you all a

profitable and less stressful year.

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INTRODUCTION

We are deeply honoured that the Taoiseach is here this

evening.

Taoiseach your speech last year, while it generated fantastic

publicity for the Chamber, conveyed some important

messages, for example the need for the business community

and Government to work together and need to continue

investment in infrastructure and other productive services.

We are a year on.

Thanks be to goodness some would say.

Many of the challenges you mentioned have been addressed.

But we are still in the economic doldrums, with many

businesses in the city fearful of the year ahead.

Your speech tonight is awaited with keen anticipation.

Taoiseach, could you kindly take the podium.

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Also thanks to.......................

Gina and all the Chamber team.

To the Four Seasons for a splendid dinner.

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And to you our members who have supported the event in

such numbers.

Goodnight.