RECOVERY BY 2016, REPORT SAYS - Employers' group IBEC and consulting group PwC predict that employment levels will be back at pre-crisis levels within five years, by 2016, as exports grow and domestic firms start exporting new services and products.
In a report today, they suggest that by 2016 the domestic sector will have regained all of the output lost during the downturn.
Danny McCoy, director general of IBEC, said firms had indicated that they were back in a growth phase, though domestic demand now needed a boost and much of the growth was jobless at the moment.
Pat O'Donnell, managing director of Allergan Pharmaceuticals Ireland in Westport, Co Mayo, said his company had expanded significantly since its beginnings as a small manufacturing operation in 1977.
He said he would share the optimism expressed by Mr McCoy - but he said there was still more work to be done on costs such as utilities and energy. Mr O'Donnell also said the West of Ireland still needed improvements in infrastructure.
Larry Murrin, chief executive of Dawn Farm Foods, said the food and drink sector was particularly strong at the moment. He said last year was strong for exports, and the outlook for 2012 was positive. Mr Murrin said cost-cutting measures were starting to pay dividends in terms of competitiveness.
