The centrality of agriculture within Ireland needs to be reinforced and re-energised, a leading economist has said.
Speaking at the Nuffield International Agri-Summit at the Killashee Hotel, in Co Kildare, David McWilliams said: “When it comes to agriculture, we need to absolutely change the message to reinforce, re-energise the centrality of agriculture within this country of ours, not least because, climatically, this is what we are most good at.”
He was commenting about the domination of multi-nationals in Ireland, describing them as “like an oil find”, but had “completely skewed” Ireland’s economic policy.
“We feel they are making us strong, but they’re actually making us weak by elbowing out other industries in the country, such as agriculture and tourism.
“Because money is cascading into the Revenue,” he said, adding that he fears Ireland could end up in a situation where multi-nationals are the only profitable industries in Ireland.
He said, however, that it does not mean that multi-nationals should be hounded.
Rise of nationalism
Commenting on the rise of nationalism across the EU and the UK, McWilliams said that one of the unfortunate things about being Irish is that we absorb British media, which he said is “infused with and driven by a relentless hatred of France”.
“They really don’t like any project from the European mainland that looks vaguely successful,” he said, stating that one of Ireland’s dilemmas is that the country’s ability to absorb cultural bias reached its peak at Brexit in 2016.
McWilliams said that he gets the impression that the EU needs to equip itself in a new world of nationalism.
“The promise of the EU was an anti-nationalist promise,” he said, but that this never replaced the sense of place that Europeans have based on country, and in Ireland’s case, their parish.
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