THE IRISH business lobby group Ibec has pressed the case with EU economics commissioner Olli Rehn for new measures to boost the lending capacity of the European Investment Bank and redeploy €82 billion in unspent structural funds.
Ibec director general Danny McCoy met Mr Rehn in Brussels yesterday and said he found him to be in a serious mood but optimistic about the ongoing effort by Spain to settle its banking system.
“Obviously the growth agenda is foremost in his mind along with the travails of the Spanish economy, so we talked about the need for a game-changer that would help Ireland and Europe more generally,” Mr McCoy said.
Citing Spain and the uncertain political outlook in Greece, Mr McCoy said Mr Rehn took succour from the fact Ireland was an example for both countries. Ibec has called for an increase in the capital base of the EIB to enable it to expand its investment target from some €50 billion this year to €100 billion.
“Contracts signed for Ireland last year were valued at €475 million, compared to just over €1 billion in 2009. Ireland and the programme countries need to be allocated a greater share of EIB funds and the overall scale of EIB operations needs to be increased.”
Although Ireland has spent its allocation of funds under the scheme, Ibec believes it should be much easier to reallocate unused money across the EU. “These should be used to support new initiatives to tackle youth unemployment and targeted at countries worst-affected by the financial crisis.” Mr McCoy told the commissioner the Irish economy has capacity to grow by 3 or 4 per cent per annum, twice the EU average, every year for 20 years.
