Ibec Encourages Strategic Budget to Achieve Long-Term Impact at the National Economic Dialogue

Ibec, the group representing Irish businesses, has stated that Budget 2025 should adopt a strategic focus beyond short term election focus to ensure that the economy can cope as global uncertainty intensifies. Speaking ahead of the National Economic Dialogue in Dublin Castle, Ibec emphasised the real risks of not effectively supporting domestic business growth and competing for inward investment.

Speaking ahead of the National Economic Dialogue, Ibec CEO Danny McCoy said:

"Budget 2025 needs to have a two-pronged approach: one that reassures our domestic businesses in terms of long-term support and also repositions Ireland to capitalise on the next wave of inward investment through our capabilities, capacity, and competitiveness.

The Irish economy has emerged stronger than ever from a period of significant turbulence. However, the rise of state-driven competition for investment, increasing geopolitical tensions, and decreasing trade openness are not beneficial for small countries like Ireland. We will never be able to compete with larger countries when it comes to subsidies and have benefited enormously from global trade integration. Now more than ever, we need to be laser-focused on competing based on our own strengths. If we want to guarantee high living standards into the future, we must use this pre-election budget to look past short-term gains and clearly define where we need the economy to be in the coming years.

This will be achieved through a budget that addresses strategic issues, rather than distributing handouts that end up spreading the pot too thinly. In particular, we must underpin the cost competitiveness of business; substantially increase investment in upskilling and follow through on the commitment to unlock the National Training Fund’; address our energy competitiveness challenges; and adopt a more strategic playbook to ensure that Ireland can continue to compete with jurisdictions offering far greater financial incentives for mobile investment.”