Updates from Ibec CEO Danny McCoy

CEO Update: Our capacity for competitiveness and resilience

Friday, 28 November

The latest CEO Update to Ibec membership from Danny McCoy

Dear member,

Over the past number of weeks, Ibec launched two significant campaigns, both of which will be central to our activities for the remainder of this year and well into next year. Both our ‘Open for Business’ and EU Presidency Priorities campaigns come at a very important time for Ireland.

Both campaigns relate to our capacity for competitiveness and resilience: how we resist protectionism and a growing intolerance creeping into our society and how we ensure that Ireland remains competitive and is robust in the area of security and defence. These factors are critically important to future economic prosperity.

We are all aware of the rise in division in our society. While there are many manifestations of this- from rising anti-immigration to anti-LGBT+ sentiments- all are fuelled by misinformation, with the net result contributing to growing hostility and division. This hostility has the potential to do serious damage to the fabric of our society, and of course, our economy.

Business has a role not only to support our colleagues, some of whom have been subject to these hostilities, but also to stand up against them. Through Ibec’s campaign, in the coming weeks we will be driving this collective action and voice, while also continuing, through our Employer elations and Social Policy team, to provide our members with the toolkits and supports to manage incidents when they arise.

You may also be aware that, as part of the Ibec EU Presidency Priorities, one of the themes is security and defence from a European perspective. However, as a business community, we are also aware of the importance of assessing our own robustness in terms of external threats and how this can impact business through potential risks to cyber-infrastructure, underwater cables, or critical infrastructure. An article published in the Financial Times this week highlights the vulnerabilities that exist for Ireland- something which is likely to garner more international attention as we get closer to assuming the EU Presidency in July.

Please continue to engage with our campaign and further papers due to be published in the coming weeks, including a paper on security and defence.

In this context, I joined Ibec President Dr Colin Hunt in Cyprus last week at a conference of presidents for BusinessEurope which includes 43 European business representative organisations from 32 countries. I have been chosen by BusinessEurope to chair a taskforce on security and defence, to address the vulnerabilities for business at a European level. I will keep you updated on its progress.

Best regards,

Danny McCoy,

Ibec CEO