Encouraging announcements on Irish economy - Brady

Cyprian Brady Fianna Fáil TD for Dublin Central and Vice Chair of the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Enterprise, Trade and Employment has today welcomed two separate but equally encouraging announcements on the Irish economy.

In its Spring forecast published today, the European Commission has said that Ireland’s economy will return to a growth rate of 3 per cent next year. Meanwhile, the latest NCB Purchasing Managers' Index has recorded a rise in the country’s services industry for the first time in over two years.

Responding to the positive developments Deputy Brady said: “Today’s figures provide further confirmation that the Irish economy is now firmly on the road to recovery. It is clear that the decisive actions taken by the Government are beginning to have an impact.”

Deputy Brady said: “The forecast by the European Commission and today’s PMI survey on services mirror an upward trend in the economy overall. The ESRI and the Central Bank have both predicted a return to growth within the year. More recently, Davy Stockbrokers even went so far as saying that the recession here is over.”

Deputy Brady said: “There were also a number of positive announcements this month in terms of retail sales. Marking the first year on year increase in two years, retail sales rose by 3%. Car sales also enjoyed a major boost with the Society of the Irish Motor Industry (SIMI) reporting that the Government car scrappage scheme has resulted in 5,000 new car sales.”

Deputy Brady said: “The have also been several positive developments recently in terms of exports. Last week Dublin Port announced it had recorded its fourth consecutive month of increased trading activity. Days earlier, the CSO released encouraging statistics showing that our merchandise exports were remaining stable while the value of our imports were increasing.”

Deputy Brady concluded: “I hope that the Irish people will draw comfort from the today’s announcements and view them as further proof that the Irish economy is turning a corner.”

Click here to read more on the encouraging outlook for the economy.