Institute of International and European Affairs

Thank you, Mrs. Robinson.

Well, I'm delighted to be back at the IIEA and to address the Institute as part of its Pathways Ireland's Agricultural Future Programme.

And it's a particular pleasure to be here to mark the International Year of the Woman Farmer, which, as we know, is co-sponsored by Ireland, and to be joined by such a strong all-female panel.

My dear friend, Yvonne Boland, wrote a poem in 2018 to mark the centenary of Irish women winning the right to vote, the suffragette movement.

Thank you.

I just want to say, before I turn to Mary for the very final word, I just want to say a couple of words of thanks.

Thanks to the IIEA for hosting this fantastic event, particularly Matt O'Neill.

And I know all the resources that have been provided today will, I'm sure, be available on the IIEA website in time.

I, I remember we were trying to deal with this question in Valencia, and this question about like, do you create like tr- specific apprenticeship programs, or like do you run it through like a military reserve? You know, like if in the Royal Navy Reserve, for example, could you train people through that? But it's really d- it's a really thorny question, and I think you're, I think it's a really, that, that talent one is gonna be one that's gonna be probably quite a sticky question.

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Okay.

Dan O'Brien is Chief Economist of the Institute of International and European Affairs.

Do you think, could the government actually afford to get rid of the USC? Or would it be dangerous in that it would do, as Daniel McConnell just suggested, narrow the tax base?

Well, it used to be that it widened the tax base, but because of exemptions, that's actually become much less important now.

Now, Simon Harris did address that in his speech saying this is not a watering down of our climate commitments, but I suppose it's acknowledging the reality of the energy shocks that we've suffered.

It's our second major energy shock we've suffered in the last four years.

Okay, Nancy Fallon from KPMG, Daniel McConnell, Editor of the Business Post, Dan O'Brien, Chief Economist of the Institute of International and European Affairs remain with us.

Daniel McConnell, what about the much hyped savings and investment scheme from Simon Harris? Did we finally get the details today?

What a guy.

Our panel today, Dan O'Brien is chief economist with the Institute of International and European Affairs.

Máiría Cahill is a Northern Irish author and columnist.

Laura Bambrick is social policy officer with ITU and Gary Murphy is professor of politics at DCU.

But I do think that there are ways of bringing... forward that sort of engagement and explanation and forms of accountability.

I'm conscious that, for example, foreign affairs matters in external policy questions, the Institute of International and European Affairs, I think, does a very good job at bringing people together.

And through, not always in public, admittedly, but through that networking, the understanding of issues on the part of journalists and commentators and activists and so on, they hear firsthand the take of our diplomatic colleagues.

I'm impressed with the work that's being done in Britain by the Institute for Government.

And I am pleased to welcome you all today to this event with this distinguished panel.

scholar at the Institute of International and European Affairs.

We're delighted to be joined by Dr. Fernando Bizarro, who is assistant professor of political science at Boston College, who will deliver a keynote address entitled, The Price of Latin America's Democratic Plateau.

Following this, I will invite our speaker to sit down and we will, again, and we will go to our Q&A with our audience.

Cormac, you picked a piece by Ellen Coyne about a suggestion by the Labour MEP, Eoin O'Riordan.

Yeah, this kind of came out of the blue, but he was speaking at an event at the Institute of International European Affairs on Friday night alongside a Dutch politician.

And what's happened in the Netherlands is that the smaller left-wing parties did so badly in an election that they decided to amalgamate, including their version of the Labour Party and the Green Party.

So, you know, he was asked about this.