Businesses highlight key Budget priorities

A group that represents Irish businesses and business leaders held a meeting in Cork this week with several TDs ahead of Budget 2023.

Ibec met with Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform, Michael McGrath and regional TDs in the Ibec Cork office, to highlight key priorities ahead of this month’s Budget.

Ibec said that Budget 2023 must provide “a robust response” to both the immediate inflationary competitiveness challenges and in meeting the long-term strategic issues we face as a society.

As Ibec launched its Budget 2023 campaign detailing suggested spending and tax measures of just under €2bn, it said that the undoubted current inflationary pressures must be matched by a focus on the crucial long-term investments necessary to enhance living standards, overall quality of life and economic resilience.

The group said it believes there is a need for direct supports for those households and industries most exposed to spiralling energy costs.

Fiscal policy must also be flexible over the winter and potentially into 2023 should a continued deterioration of the inflationary environment occur, Ibec has said.

Speaking at the meeting, Helen Leahy, Ibec Head of Regional Policy said: “Budget 2023 arrives at a crucial inflection point for the global economy. Catalysed by huge cost pressures and tightening of financial markets, we are facing significant global economic headwinds, with the era of record low interest rates, low inflation, and spare capacity ending.

“As a small open economy, shifts in the flow of capital through the global economy will have an outsized impact on the Irish growth model. Our members are already experiencing this through tighter capital markets and rapidly rising costs. The outlook for Irish business is marked by growing concern at rapid shifts in our competitive position. This underlines the importance of controlling what we can here at home in Budget 2023.”

She added: “In the short term, the focus of the business community will be on dealing with the impact of a rapid escalations in costs, particularly energy and labour costs. This must be supported by a significant immediate package of emergency energy supports under the new EU State Aid framework along with a package of Budget Day incentives for energy efficiency and low carbon investment in 2023. Government must also do much more to control and offset the policy related labour costs which are impacting business.”

“The measures detailed in Ibec’s submission, along with the continued delivery of the €800 million in capital investment under the National Development Plan (NDP) in 2023 will help to balance the needs of households and businesses to deal with the current economic challenges they face, whilst also providing a strong platform for improving living standards and quality of life into the future,” she concluded.