THE IDA Ireland policy of tempting foreign companies with grants was being replaced by the worker skills base as the attraction for inward investors to establish businesses in Ireland, the State agency's chief executive said yesterday.
Mr Sean Dorgan said the IDA would focus on a competitiveness agenda and take on an instructive role between industry and the Government as part of its future direction.
Grants and an attractive tax regime were less important for companies as inducements. Adequate infrastructure and a skills base were the two ingredients which would enable subsidiaries to perform well relative to their sister plants in other states. "We really are going up the value chain in skills all the time and that is very important . . . It is the people here who are winning projects," he said. Grant payments would be significantly reduced, in any case, he said, because of pressure from Brussels.
Mr Dorgan, who took up the role of chief executive last month, was addressing members of the US Chamber of Commerce, which provides a forum for US subsidiaries based in Ireland.
He set out a three-point strategy for the IDA, aimed at achieving greater regional impact, using the skills base rather than the traditional grants system for attracting further inward investment, and playing a greater role in determining the competitive agenda. The IDA, for market reasons, had to be instructive, he said, interpreting the needs of business and informing the Government. "We see that as part of our role, part of our after-sales service, that we can give good access to Government," he said.
He was aware of the concerns of "worker models" being imposed from Brussels, consultation models which did not take account of Irish conditions and were "contracultural" to the US. This message would have to be conveyed in Brussels, so that the State's competitiveness was not reliant on "a pan-European solution".
The IDA was going to achieve a much better regional impact than had been the case, he said, although the development of an adequate roads network and "being within an hour of an airport" were particular infrastructural problems. "The success has been somewhat imbalanced towards the east coast and towards the urban centres," he said.
