Delivering a better economy for all - Adams addresses Dublin Chamber of Commerce

BY ROBBIE SMYTH

Gerry Adams

A packed Burlington Hotel conference room greeted Sinn Féin President Gerry Adams yesterday morning as he spoke at a Dublin Chamber of Commerce breakfast. The Chamber had originally planned using another hotel, but was such the demand they booked a bigger venue.

Adams' address covered a range of business and policy issues on local government reform, transport, business taxes and a proposal for a Dublin forum of TDs, councillors, business, trade unions, community and other groups to plan a sustainable and fair future for Dublin.

Below we carry an edited version of the Adams speech.

Equality, Empowerment and Inclusivity

"Can I begin my remarks this morning by saying that I am a politician, not a businessman, so I look at the economy not just in terms of the creation of wealth but how that wealth can be used for the benefit of everyone.

Sinn Féin is a republican party, the only all-Ireland party. Our goal is to see a united Ireland, which delivers real social and economic change.

The core value of republicanism is equality; it is about people's rights and entitlements, including economic rights.

It is about empowering citizens; about creating conditions where people can use their talents and energy. It is about community and inclusivity.

The 1990s were a time of enormous economic growth in this state. During this time, more and more businesses emerged, more jobs were created and life improved for many people — although there are many questions about quality of life issues and the widening gap between rich and poor.

There is a fundamental issue of how we use the wealth we now enjoy. Is it for the benefit of everyone or for an elite?

Business - Planning for the Future

As business people in Dublin, you have had your own experiences of the last ten years of what the peace process has meant and the impact of economic growth.

There are approximately 40,000 businesses in Dublin and 96% of these businesses employ less than 50 people.

The most important and overlooked statistic is that these businesses and their workers productivity have been the engine of employment creation and growth in the city for decades before the Celtic Tiger boom and are still here, with nearly 600,000 people at work in the city today. How much investment does central government make into those 600,000 jobs?

Sinn Féin wants to see one agency dealing with all the indigenous businesses in Ireland. We want to see the same level of investment and aid made available to local businesses as is available to multinationals.

Transport and privatisation

You know that this government promotes itself as the friend of business. You also know what it is capable, or not capable of.

Take, for example, the issue of transport in Dublin. The city's transport infrastructure is creaking. The people who are suffering most in all of this are ordinary households who need to travel to work, to school, to the shops every day and the businesses who have suffered loss of revenue because of the gridlock or endless building work outside their premises.

What consultation was there with the business community over the rollout of LUAS, and not just about the traffic chaos caused, but the loss to business generally and particularly along the routes?

Has central government consulted with you about the plans to privatise Dublin Bus?

Will you really be better off in ten years time if an unaccountable transnational transport company is running Dublin Bus?

If you, the representatives of the most powerful interest groups in the city, are being excluded from consultation and decision-making, what do you think is the experience of those on the very margins of society, who are caught up in a day to day struggle for housing and health services?

Sinn Féin's vision for local government

Local government, its funding and effectiveness, is of paramount importance. Sinn Féin wants a system where there is more democracy, more participation, more involvement of all those in society and most importantly where more powers and funding are wrested from central government towards the local communities. This is what real decentralisation means.

Taxing business

I am often asked if Sinn Féin would increase business taxes. We believe that everyone should pay taxes and that this should be on a fair basis. The government makes a big issue of tax cuts but at the same time businesses, particularly small businesses, are being crucified by insurance costs and service charges.

Sinn Féin opposed the cutting of corporation tax to 12.5 %, especially when minimum wage workers were in the tax net. So we are not in principle opposed to higher taxes, though we have no plans to increase them.

Instead, we want the comprehensive reform and overhaul I have outlined above. We also believe that tax cuts should be incentive driven. That would mean making low corporation tax linked, for example, to good environmental practices or providing childcare facilities or investing in worker training and education or developing new products.

We believe that there should be long term clarity on business taxes. This is crucial. That makes good sense for business. It also makes for a better economy.

A Forum for Dublin

I said at the beginning that Sinn Féin doesn't have all the answers to all these issues. But we have a willingness to learn, to engage and to be inclusive.

I have been coming to Dublin for over 40 years, since the first time Down won an All-Ireland back about 1961. At that time, this city was a smaller more intimate collection of wee small villages. I have been here in the terrible years of recession. I worked with local communities in the late 1970s, particularly against the drugs scourge, when I came out of Long Kesh.

I have always had a great fondness and familiarity with Dublin, not least because I can do normal things here like going to the pictures, or theatre or concerts or shopping, that I don't do so easily in my own city. So I delighted in how this city, not least because of the efforts of business people, pulled itself out of recession and into prosperity.

Of course, I am ultra conscious that this is a tale of two cities. Of poverty alongside wealth. Of a housing crisis. A real problem of law and order or the lack of it. I know many whose quality of life is reduced by stress, encouraged by gridlock and the madness of city life. I too have spent hours in traffic jams.

So I want to end by proposing that a special forum be convened to look at all these issues.

I propose that Dublin's 48 TDs, the elected representatives of the four councils, the Chamber of Commerce, the Dublin Council of Trade Unions, housing, local community and other groups from civic society sit down together to discuss, debate and ultimately plan a sustainable and fair future for all the people in this city.

Finally, I want to say that I believe that we share some common ground, especially in the recognition that we all have a responsibility to do what we can together to meet the many economic and social needs we face.

Let's take this step and make the next decade one that can deliver a better Dublin for all."