New Government Told to Remove Barriers that Stifle Growth

DUBLIN— Day one of the National Employment Week at the Royal College of Physicians in Dublin was told by Senator Fergal Quinn that the new government must remove the barriers that stifle growth in the Irish economy.

In his address, Fergal Quinn of Superquinn fame stressed, “We have got to remove barriers which stifle the growth of new industry: in some countries, a new business can be up and running in 7 hours.”

The National Employment Week publicises a call on each employer to create a job for at least one additional person in 2011.
Microsoft Ireland Managing Director, Paul Rellis, said: “The key in relation to Information Communications Technologies (ICT) is to move rapidly, to get going. Start with students in second level schools. The internet explosion erupted in the year 2000; it’s virtually a new industry which has great potential.

Thousands of companies can now start up at a fraction of the cost; for instance our own Cloud Computing provides resources to companies all around the world.”

At the launch, a short video clip showed the progress of 200 countries over 200 years in four minutes. The object was to show how countries who adapted quickly to new technologies became the healthiest and wealthiest, and indicated that the new industries are the ones we are going to have to adopt if we don’t want to become one of the nations left behind.

Mr Rellis said, “It’s important to create conditions in Ireland to attract companies from other countries, and also to keep them here.” Mr Rellis stated that “Financial problems are everywhere, it is a global issue, but foreigners sometimes ask why the Greeks got a much more favourable treatment from the EU.”

Ms Louise Phelan from PayPal said in her address that, “The Irish media is not helping Irish business abroad by continually reporting doom and gloom, we have to talk Ireland up, we have to support each other to grow the double digit growth we want for Ireland.”

Louise Phelan joined PayPal in 2000 from GE Money, where she was a member of senior management for 16 years. She said: “PayPal is a bank which operates from Blanchardstown. 50 per cent of our staff speak English and the other 50 per cent speak foreign languages. Yes, there were challenges in 2009: I wanted to secure PayPal’s base in Ireland and approached the IDA with the mindset of ‘You help me’.

“After working with the IDA, we signed a seven million euro deal to ensure we stay in Ireland. We now have 1200 people working for us in Blanchardstown. We work through nine languages and 52 currencies. We could find in Ireland the staff we required to take the corporation to the next level, and I have interviewed for staff in many countries”.

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