Government should try to avoid controlling the economy and concentrate on promoting small business, a Fianna Fáil economic conference was told yesterday.
The Government's record on the economy was strongly defended at the Galway event, which follows rising concern in Fianna Fáil that the economy might negatively affect the Coalition's chances of re-election.
Delegates attending the conference, on the subject of the economy and small and medium-sized enterprises, voiced concerns about inflation and the state of infrastructure.
Galway/Mayo Institute of Technology director Marion Coy warned that Ireland's prosperity was being taken for granted.
Opening the conference, Minister for Finance Brian Cowen said that pro-business policies did not conflict with achieving social justice.
"Some cling to the completely false assumption that the interests of business and of the wider society are opposed. In fact the reality is quite the opposite," Mr Cowen said.
Minister for Enterprise Micheál Martin said: "Fianna Fáil is proud of the role it has played in government to support the dynamism of entrepreneurs through creating a pro-enterprise environment."
But Ms Coy warned that Ireland's economic progress could no longer be taken for granted. "It's important that we don't believe too much of our own guff," she said.
Citing her experience of a visit to New Orleans, whose economy was destroyed last year by flooding, Ms Coy warned that the Government should plan for the unexpected. "When I visited New Orleans, they justified their lack of response on the basis that they had planned for the known. But what good is the known. It is the unknown that we will have to confront," Ms Coy said.
Mr Cowen said the Government had no contingency plan to deal with the prospect of a severe increase in oil prices, which have risen to new highs in the wake of tensions in the Middle East.
"I'm refusing to talk down the economy, as seems to be the trend at the moment," he added.
He rejected a suggestion by a delegate, Alex Clarke, to create a prices commission, but said the Government was doing all it could to contain rising inflation.
"We haven't raised indirect taxes or excise duties in the last two budgets. But it is important that we see more competition in the domestic services sector. Some pro-competitive measures, such as the introduction of the Groceries Order, will come through in due course."
Last Thursday the Central Statistics Office confirmed that inflation remained stuck at a four-year high of 3.9 per cent last June.
Mr Martin strongly defended the concept of economic migration, which he said had played a vital role in the economy.
"If you go to Dell they'll tell you that they would not have been able to grow to 3,000 employees without economic migration," he said.
He also said that new legislation was on the way to increase competition in the pharmaceutical sector.
The European Court of Justice last week upheld the legal impact of a ban on pharmacists with foreign qualifications managing Irish pharmacies.
The Government promised last July to reform the 1991 ministerial order which gives effect to the ban.