2009
Exporters urge government not to delay economic stimulus package by deferring it to the Partnership process.
The IEA today (25th March) urged government to immediately release an Economic Stimulus package to support the struggling export sector and prevent further job losses.
The IEA further warned that deferring discussions on an economic stimulus package to the Social Partnership negotiation process will inevitably cause a further delay of at least 6 months, based on prior partnership negotiations' time frames. Inevitably the defunct wage payments element will be brought back on the table, as will the Public pension contributions.
John Whelan, CEO of the Irish Exporters Association, stated:
"Whereas there is a case for a new Partnership agreement, this must be tackled as a separate activity from the urgent need for an Enterprise and Export economic stimulus package."
He went on to say:
"The vast majority of our trading partners have already implemented an Enterprise Stimulus package of between 3.5% to 4.5% of G.D.P. In Ireland's case, this would mean an economic stimulus package of approx €6billion.
A stimulus package of this magnitude may not be do-able given the state of the Exchequer finances, but we must be at least talking of €1 billion, not the €100million mentioned by the Taoiseach Brain Cowan TD at the F.F. Ard Feis.
He concluded by saying:
"Exporters are facing an avalanche of market losses in international markets, due to adverse exchange rates, customers' bad debts and falling consumer demand. Any further delays in releasing an enterprise export stimulus package by government will add greatly to the market and job losses."
END
For more information, please contact John Whelan as below:
Phone: 01 661 2182
Mobile: 087 927 1243
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