the-global-island-irelands-foreign-policy

46
OUR PROSPERITY
My Job
Promotion event for Irish food in the Republic of Korea
Michael Collins
Ambassador Germany
I came to Germany last year from
Washington DC and to another
relationship that is of vital
importance to Ireland. The job of our
embassy team is to ensure that we
are engaged with Germany in a way
that advances Ireland’s huge trade,
investment and tourism links and
our EU interests.
A bioscience class at Athlone Institute of Technology. Photo: Athlone Institute of Technology
However, the open nature of Ireland’s
economy means that our ability
to trade and to attract investment
and tourism is affected to a degree
that is rare among our European
partners by developments elsewhere.
The issues of development, security
and sustainability set out in the
previous chapter exert a powerful
effect on the global economy. Our
values and our economic interests are
closely interrelated.
As a small, open economy, Ireland
is reliant on trade, investment and
tourism to sustain around 900,000
jobs. The foreign owned sector employs
over 250,000 people in Ireland and
contributes many more jobs indirectly.
Indigenous exporters employ 175,000
people and support a total of 300,000
jobs, or some 16% of the workforce. The
value of exports has exceeded our GDP
since 2010. The eight million tourists
who visited the island of Ireland in 2013
helped sustain 240,000 jobs North and
South. All three sectors show strong
growth potential over the next five years.
To take full advantage of this, intensive,
targeted and coordinated engagement
will be required on several fronts – to
remove barriers to trade, investment
and mobility, to ensure a sustainable
and competitive tax regime, to deepen
engagement with priority and high
potential markets and to leverage
our competitive advantages to
greatest effect.
What Germany is thinking, and
how it is doing, matters to Ireland.
Hosting the Taoiseach here in
Berlin last July when he met
with the Chancellor and business
leaders really brought home to
me the substance and scale of
our relationship. As an embassy,
we are dedicated to building this
relationship in every way that we
can and forging a strong future
together as committed members of
the EU.