Hello Paddy,
This country has so many issues.....
Housing been No 1.
With the property rising so quick in the early 2000's, our labor force has had to negotiate significant pay rises in order to afford accomadation.... thus increasing company overheads.... which is passed onto the end product / company overheads.
ECB Rate decisions / Euro Currency
As we are bound into the the ECB monetary policy. We cannot, as a nation form our own monetary policy. This has given us at least a 2% increase in lending rates on mortgages over the last 2 years. This has lead to higher wage demands, to service already over valued house prices / mortgages.... Thus increasing a companies cost base.
The implementation of the Euro was also a "overnight", inflation fueling exercise. With many products jumping by exorbitant amounts.
One major issue that ECB rate decisions created in Ireland (in the past) with the impression of "cheap money" (as in loan rates) and this also this helped fuel the property boom.
As the ECB is predominately focused on Germany & France, they have little sympathy for Ireland, with their "mandate", to keep inflation in check.
Investment in Infrastructure
We did not invest enough money in establishing a proper infrastructure for businesses in the "boom times". This leads us to have a very high cost base for transportation etc. This again adding to the costs to manufacturing companies.
In short, as an economy we have created a very high cost base for manufacturing etc. There really has to be a "reality" check in Ireland before we become competitive again. I am not sure how the government proposes to implement this
This is why we are loosing so many jobs to Eastern Europe / Aisa etc
There also loads of other factors too... but everything is cyclical & we are in a bit of a downward cycle at present IMO :dunno:
Sorry to bore you
Cheers,
Michael
PS I never thought this would be a topic on the ISDC :dunno: