+34The CEO of business group, Ibec, has welcomed the signs of progress between the UK and the EU in a deal over the Northern Ireland Protocol.
"This matters to business in the Irish Republic as well," said Danny McCoy,"So we've all got a great interest in seeing this come to some conclusion and certainty. I think against that certainty platform, we can go forward and get a breakthrough.
" Ibec has published its annual CEO Survey which shows business sentiment remains high, despite the obvious economic uncertainty. However, the growing cost of doing business, housing challenges, and talent availability, are issues that are beginning to erode confidence We need your consent to load this rte-player contentWe use rte-player to manage extra content that can set cookies on your device and collect data about your activity. Please review their details and accept them to load the content.Manage Preferences"Inflation is one of those great uncertainties, you don't know what price you are going to receive, it's very difficult for customers to know what they are going to be paying," Danny McCoy said. "The fact that it's now turning is good news and hopefully we'll see core inflation, which is still about 5%, come down because that tends to affect wage demands and so on, so it's good news and any uncertainty that is being removed is a good thing." Despite the early economic challenges of 2023, the Irish economy continues to remain remarkably resilient, with business leaders considering the business environment to be more positive now than this time last year. However, 80% of respondents believe that the next six months will see weaker growth, driven largely by concerns on input cost inflation, rising labour costs, volatile energy markets and housing availability. "We need to see an ambitious suite of measures delivered by Government to address the challenges emerging or risk undermining future economic development," Mr McCoy said. "It is imperative that we now see energy support schemes be made more effective, while Government must urgently reinvigorate the policy drive around the availability and affordability of housing. Ireland must offer people good living and working conditions to sustain economic success and remain attractive to local and global mobile talent pools," he added.
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