Ireland's lack of renewable and sustainable energy could damage our economic future, an economic expert has said. 

An article in yesterday's Business Post said the window is closing for Ireland to secure its economic future.

On Newstalk Breakfast, University College Dublin Governing Authority chair and former Amazon Web Services country leader in Ireland Michael Beary said there is a chance of Ireland becoming “complacent” about our economy as it is currently so “strong”.

Maintaining economic strength

“When you think about our current, strong corporate tax receipts, they are all reflective of decisions that Ireland made 10/15, years ago,” he said.

“So for me, the question now is, what's the set of decisions that we need to make to maintain that level of prosperity, economic strength?

“I think because we have such strong tax receipts at the moment and we're in good health when it comes to employment, there is a danger of complacency in the way global investment decisions are made.

“Big companies don't announce when they pass you by, so we won't know if companies have chosen other places until many years later when we realise that they're not here.”

Ireland is not as attractive

Mr Beary said he believes Ireland isn’t as attractive for big companies as we were 10 years ago.

“We showed ourselves to be extraordinarily nimble and dexterous over the many, many years when you think about our business climate, our tax rate, our talent, our access to markets - all of those were critical,” he said

“But now every major company in the world has made commitments to decarbonise their entire operations.

“Hundreds of companies have signed on to the climate pledge that say they want to decarbonise and to get to net zero by 2040.

“If you're a jurisdiction that can't offer sustainable renewable energy as part of your offering, you fall off the list.

“When they're making decisions about where they're going to place their next investment, they have to know that there's a path to net zero by 2040 if not sooner and they need to know that they're going into a jurisdiction that supports that and understands that and the capacity is there or is going to be built.”

Sustainable and renewable energy

In relation to sustainable and renewable energy, Ireland is lagging, Mr Beary said.

“I think that most people have fully appreciated that we as a country have great advantages when it comes to offshore wind and our ability to create great value from that offshore wind and use it on the island of Ireland,” he said.

“Where we get ourselves tripped up is when we get into the details of, ‘What does that mean in terms of where does a power line run? What does that mean in terms of what port reinforcements we make? What does that mean in terms of one community over another?’”

Public sentiment

A conversation needs to happen around public sentiments about our future and “the health of our society”, Mr Beary said.

“When I think about offshore wind and sustainable energy, that means that you're going to have to put a lot of investment on the west coast of Ireland and so suddenly, in communities all along the west coast, you can have well paid jobs that are going to be long term,” he said.

“They're going to mean that people can stay in their communities, send their kids to the local school - they won't be moving to Dublin or they won't be moving to Sydney.

“They'll be able to stay in the West Coast, if we make those decisions.

“But there's trade-offs - it means that you're going to say, ‘Okay, I understand I'm going to see some turbines off the coast’, or ‘I'm going to see new kit put on a pier in a community’.”

Mr Beary said this is “the price” of making sure we have a “long term healthy economy”.

Irish economy, © PA Wire/PA Images