Property must resume its role as a support act
Anne Dooley, who is a director of Winthrop Group, with her O2 WM Businesswoman of the Year Award
Wednesday October 08 2008
Our worst fears have now been realised: the Irish economy was in a bubble, and we have not, as we hoped, evolved into the great 'New Ireland' of sustained prosperity and economic stability.
We are, of course, a long way from the hardship of the Eighties, but we don't know yet how much further we have to fall.
Hindsight is, of course, a wonderful thing. Now that we're looking back on the past 10 years, you'd have to wonder how we didn't see the bust coming. We've had an economy which to a significant degree was precariously based on property speculation -- of course it had to end.
Recently, Ireland's prosperity was based on cash injected from the EU and then property development exploded onto the scene. We didn't seem to think we needed much else to keep the economy ticking over.
However, for real, sustained growth, the New Ireland needs more strings to its bow than our property market. It's clear now that we put too much stock on too few economic elements.
We need to focus on developing an economy based on sustainable and independent industries, we need to reduce our cost base and to seriously slim-down the public sector costs and their swelling numbers. We also need the property market to find its own level without Government intervention.
A lot of property players have been making calls for Government initiatives to end the so-called property crisis and kick-start buyer confidence.
However, I'm not sure Government intervention is the right approach. Astronomical property prices and the subsequent high wages and living costs are what have made Ireland one of the most uncompetitive economies in Europe.
There is no easy solution. Redundancies and growing unemployment queues are not what any politician or leader wants to see on his or her watch. Regardless of how we proceed, it is clear we must take some pain to get where we need to be.
We now have to focus on competitive and streamlined operations to differentiate us from our competitors internationally and keep property as a support act, not the leading role.
- ANNE DOOLEY
