O’Gorman urges Government to establish new Forum on Our Economic Future

Green Party Leader Roderic O’Gorman TD has called on the Government to convene a Forum on our Economic Future, to begin preparing our economy for major changes. He made the call during a Dáil debate on the new tariffs imposed by the Trump Administration on all American trading partners.

“The world’s largest economy has taken a sharp turn against the globalised trading world it created. While we watch closely how this major shift plays out in American politics, in Ireland we must surely now have to face a painful reality: the open transatlantic trading model on which we have built so much of our prosperity is being eroded at its foundations.

“Faced with this, it’s essential our Government does not adopt a hunkered down approach, hoping that the storm will pass and our trading relationship with the United States will return to normal. It simply won’t. This is a moment of seismic economic change. We must not shy away from the big questions we now face: What will generate our future prosperity, pay for our future public services, and allow us to invest in a climate transition?

“At such a critical moment for our country, we all have a stake in what comes next. Today I’m calling on the Government to establish a new Forum on our Economic Future. A forum that brings together politicians, social partners, economists, our big exporters and leading Irish entrepreneurs to lead an informed public debate on what our economic model needs to look like in the decade to come”.