Cowen Welcomes ECB’s Endorsement Of Ireland’s Economic Policies

by Jason Gorringe, Tax-News.com, London

05 October 2005

Ireland's Minister for Finance, Brian Cowen, has welcomed comments made by the President of the European Central Bank, Jean Claude Trichet, who cited Ireland as a “magnificent performer” whilst making the argument for structural reform in the euro zone economies.

“We intend to stick to our policies which have proved so successful. Ireland has higher economic growth and more employment as a result," the Minister stated.

Cowen went on to add that Ireland's recent low-tax policies have played a substantial part in driving economic growth by encouraging businesses to create new employment.

"In particular, I would point to the low rate of tax on employment in Ireland as an important factor in increasing the number of jobs here," he stated.

"OECD data show that Ireland has one of the lowest tax wedges of the 30 member OECD countries. This provides strong incentives both for employers to hire more workers, for people to join the work force and is reflected in the very strong employment performance of the economy in recent years. There are now more than 2,000,000 people in the workforce," the minister added.

Cowen was also keen to draw attention to Ireland's rapidly growing financial services industry, pointing out that employment in this sector grew by 20,000 in the second quarter of 2005.

"This is in contrast to many of the larger, euro zone economies where growth, particularly in the domestic economies, is very low," a Ministry of Finance statement released this week observed.

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