Having experienced a recession, a currency crisis and two Middle East wars, the IDA's Eamonn Ryan puts the current downturn into perspective, writes Dominic Coyle.

When Eamonn Ryan first joined what was then the Industrial Development Authority, textiles were all the rage. Burlington Industries was the State's biggest employer and Asahi was just building up its operation.

Both are long gone now but Mr Ryan is still with the body that has successfully secured for Ireland far more than its fair share of foreign direct investment.

And, having worked through a recession, a currency crisis and two Middle East wars, he is well equipped to put the current economic downturn in perspective.

"It's very tight out there and there are certainly no more walk-ins," he says, "but the figures for 2002 will show an increase of about two-thirds in the business we did in 2001."

That will put the agency back on a growth curve after its first downturn in jobs created in 15 years.

As for the current year, "we are announcing or approving a project every week so far", he says.

"It is no good simply being good when times are good and bad when times are bad. We are supposed to make a difference and we are very focused on that.

"What we try to do is to make companies' difficulties an opportunity for us. If they have to restructure, you can go to them with a solution. There are lots of companies letting people go but still investing in the business."

Even the sudden undercutting of the dollar's strength does not unduly worry him.

"Everyone is in the same boat because the dollar is getting weak against both the euro and sterling. While it means that initial investment inputs will be higher, the euro-denominated return down the line will also be higher."

Mr Ryan says a far bigger problem would be if we talk ourselves down. "Back in 1983, when we ran the 'young Europeans' campaign, inflation was running at 20 per cent-plus and the country seemed to be going down the mixer, we decided to position ourselves on the basis that our greatest asset was the people and the education system, which was as good as any and better than most.

"We could not allow ourselves to talk ourselves into depression because then we were gone," he recalls.

"I would really hate if we got back to the stage where we talk ourselves into a hole."

In any case, he thinks it's unlikely to happen. Ireland is now a very different state, with a young confident workforce that has not known recession but equally does not cling to the notion of a "job for life".

"When I joined the IDA, it had a rescue division, whose job was to tide companies over but that's not a market-led approach, that's just shoring up.

"There's no rescue division in the IDA nowadays. A company is there to compete and it is our job to help it compete in the marketplace, not to hold its hand. It's not practical; you just pour money down a big hole.

"That attitude is from a different country and a different time."

Ireland's future lies, he believes, not simply in producing people who know how to manufacture technology but in how to use it.

"We still have Intel and that group of companies, of course, but from the point of view of international services, the projects are going to come from the use of technology, so Ireland has to be geared up, both in skills and in technology, such as broadband.

"Ireland's on a winner on that and I think it is one of our advantages."

He rejects notions that Ireland is losing out on the key area of broadband, pointing to the decision by Google to establish a European centre requiring 10,000 servers as evidence.

"I think it is right that we are asking ourselves questions and even right that we are criticising ourselves, as long as we don't go back to the way we were 20 years ago when we were talking ourselves out of business."

One of the State's biggest challenges, he feels, is grasping issues central to our continued development. These include continuing the roll-out of modern infrastructure, especially a comprehensive waste management plan and addressing the fall-off in science and technology students.

IDA Ireland will continue to pursue projects in international services, electronics and biotechnology, he confirms, While our success in attracting clusters of companies in the pharmaceutical and information and communications technology areas means we will always be on the list when companies are looking at creating or expanding a presence in Europe, he says the agency must ensure that we press our case to the fullest.

"It's very easy to say Ireland is full," he says. "Dublin may be full but there are large chunks of the rest of the country with lots to offer and they're not full. Intelligent life does not stop at Newlands Cross."

After all, he says, our electronics industry started in the west with Wang, DEC and Verbatim in the 1970s and pharmaceuticals have clustered in Cork.

As IDA's point man overseas, he is confident the United States will continue to be the dominant player in the foreign direct investment into Ireland. "America is America and the Americans intend to be number one in everything they are doing," he says.

It's an attitude he admires and one he feels that Ireland has learned from, especially its young people. "We have a workforce of young people and they're confident and prepared to buy into the market economy," he says. "They realise that a job for life is something that may not be on offer or even desirable and that they need to perform all the time."

For himself, he feels there is still plenty to challenge him even after 27 years in the agency.

"When I was leaving Synge Street in 1963, we had a geography teacher, Michael Turner, who gave us a talk before we left. He said he had only one bit of advice for us: 'If you're in the wrong groove, get out of it'. When I joined the IDA, I found I was in the right groove and I've stayed with it."