The case for a pro-business agenda in the local elections

Cormac Lucey outlines his suggestions for an election manifesto that, he believes, would protect and sustain the Irish economy into the future 

This June, voters in the Republic will go to the polls to vote in local and European elections. What would represent a sensible pro-business agenda to promote in these elections? Here are my ideas:

1. Tackling skewed public debate

While media debate understandably focuses on public questions that often revolve around public spending, the simple fact of the matter is that far more people work in the private sector than in the public sector. 

CSO data indicates that, at the end of 2023, just 20 percent of employees worked in the public sector. Given that the private sector generates our income and our wealth, why are its concerns so overlooked in public debate? 

2. Cutting down on public spending

High public spending, even through the exchequer, is heavily dependent on tax revenues from the multinational sector.

My estimates suggest that in 2022, just over half of Ireland’s total tax take came directly (corporation tax) and indirectly (PAYE, VAT, etc.) from the foreign direct investment (FDI) sector. 

Even though some of these FDI tax revenue streams may prove temporary, the Irish State has entered ongoing spending commitments based on the assumption that they will continue indefinitely. 

3. Promoting indigenous business

Economic and commercial policy should be primarily directed at promoting the indigenous sector.

Our current national prosperity depends on revenue streams from FDI that are ultimately controlled by people outside the State. We should use those streams to invest in our future and build up our economic capacity. 

4. Holding public officials to account

The primary job of elected political officials is to hold unelected public officials to account.

The recent RTÉ saga has, at its heart, been a story about the failure of those who were supposedly directing the organisation to adequately hold executive management to account. Was the lack of managerial accountability at RTÉ an exception or the rule? I fear it was the rule.

5. Improving State performance

Why is State performance so lamentably weak across so many important areas?
When we examine the public management of key national issues – such as housing, health, crime and immigration – our leaders demonstrate powerlessness and ineffectiveness. 

Confronted by a complex web of constraints – managerial, legal, administrative and economic – public service leaders have repeatedly displayed a worrying incapacity.

6. Reducing public sector pay

Why are Irish public servants paid so much? In the fourth quarter of 2023, public sector workers were paid, on average, €35.08 per hour. This was 32.6 percent more per hour than the €26.45 their private sector counterparts received. 

These figures are before we take into account the gold-plated pensions public sector workers get.

7. Curbing inflated costs

Ireland was named the most expensive country in the EU for goods and services by Eurostat in June 2023, with prices a staggering 46 percent higher than the average across the bloc. How can the State address the high costs of the Irish economy if it is the direct cause of high costs?

The focus of Irish politics needs to change. It seems to me that our political class is looking in the wrong direction. Rather than investing in the future, it is focused on short-term results. A new approach is needed.

*Disclaimer: The views expressed in this column published in the April/May 2024 issue of Accountancy Ireland are the author’s own. The views of contributors to Accountancy Ireland may differ from official Institute policies and do not reflect the views of Chartered Accountants Ireland, its Council, its committees, or the editor. 

Cormac Lucey is an economic commentator and lecturer at Chartered Accountants Ireland