has definitely been a bad year
Britain is overwhelmingly Ireland’s largest trading partner; some 1bn worth of goods and services are bought and sold between the two islands every week.
Ireland’s dependence on its next door neighbour and the potential for damage posed by that canada goose uk black friday neighbour stepping out of well established free trade agreements can’t be overstated, says John McGrane.
He is director general of the British Irish Chamber of Commerce, an organisation which has found cheap Canada Goose itself in the middle of the maelstrom of a once in a generation referendum that could shape the way the European Union does business for decades to come.
canada goose clearance sale The chamber was set up in Canada canada goose outlet Goose Online May 2011 to coincide with Queen Elizabeth’s historic Canada Goose Parka visit to Ireland, alongside a pledge by the British and Irish governments to do more to facilitate canada goose black friday sale trade between the two states, though it is privately funded. It is a networking, lobbying and promotion group with a big membership, a who’s who of household business names on both sides of the Irish Sea. They employ around two million Irish and British people and span virtually all sectors and sizes, from ABP Food Group to canada goose store London City Airport, their variety a testament to just how much business the two islands do. canada goose clearance sale
Canada Goose sale A smattering of Irish companies and top executives have made their feelings clear on the issue in recent months, like AIB chairman Richard Pym. At a chamber reception, Pym warned that “a border fence could have to go up between the Republic and canada goose factory sale Northern Ireland and a leave vote in the UK will almost certainly trigger Canada Goose online a new referendum in Scotland”. Canada Goose sale
But many have canada goose coats stayed silent, declining to express a view cheap canada goose uk for fear of angering customers or business partners.
canada goose store “That will probably change”, McGrane says, as the referendum gets closer. Canada Goose Outlet “Look at the Scottish referendum businesses made their voices heard quite late in the day, but when they did, it made a big difference to the result.” canada goose store
McGrane was one of the founders of the chamber, while working as head of product and services sales at Ulster Bank’s corporate markets division, alongside canada goose clearance sale companies like Fyffes, Glen Dimplex, Lloyds, Kingspan and PwC.
“Most people now know that Britain is Ireland’s largest trading partner by a long shot. But for a time it was taken for granted. Proof of that is the fact that we didn’t have a chamber until five years ago,” he says.
Canada Goose Jackets And while many firms are reluctant to get involved in the debate just yet, there is a clear consensus forming among the chamber’s members. Canada Goose Jackets
“Our members have diverse views on this. But the consensus is that Britain should stay in a reformed, stronger EU” McGrane says. “Many of our members feel the EU needs a lot of work. A lot of that has to do with the single market and Canada Goose Jackets the fact that there are lots of goods and services that can’t trade freely at all. There are lots of local standards still in existence.
canada goose “When a truck takes mushrooms from Monaghan to Milan, that should essentially be one interruption free journey right across the continent. That’s the idea of the single market. canada goose
cheap Canada Goose “In practise the driver has to get out of the car too many times canada goose uk shop to present documents at different border posts and to pay local levies for road usage, because the market is different in different states. That’s a basic example. cheap Canada Goose
Canada Goose Parka “Or the trading buy canada goose jacket cheap of renewable energy. The Canada Goose sale wind comes in off the Aran islands, it goes through a turbine and through a cable and under the Irish sea and through a cable in England, and it boils a kettle in Ketterington. That trade goes through numerous different regulations where there really should just be one set of rules. That’s a big deal because energy costs are a very big part of our competitiveness. Canada Goose Parka
canada goose coats on sale “Or digital services. Look at geoblocking media providers in one country barring access to their content to customers in other countries. That is not free movement. canada goose coats on sale
canada goose black friday sale The other big issue is uk canada goose speed, he says. “The EU needs to be able to move a lot faster. If you are a company in Manhattan looking at opening a foreign office, you can do it practically anywhere on earth now, particularly if you are selling services. canada goose black friday sale
“While the EU does very well in winning some of those deals, we miss some others. That’s because, people say, costs are too high, competitiveness is too low, there’s an ageing demographic that is not properly funded and there are major security and defence issues.
“Is Europe in good order? Europe has a lot to do to take care of its business. There’s no doubt it has been a bad few years, PR wise, for the EU.”
McGrane took the chamber’s director general job after a 40 year career in banking. He grew up in Drogheda in the Sixties and Seventies, “a uk canada goose outlet wonderful place to grow up and very focused on trade, given its location between the north and south https://www.gooseyou.com and its busy port”.
He moved canada goose to Dublin and joined Ulster right after leaving school in 1974, starting in its Dundrum branch.
buy canada goose jacket He quickly realised he would need third level education to go further, so studied for a BComm with UCD at night over five years, with professors like John Teeling. buy canada goose jacket
Canada Goose online He tried all of the traditional branch banking roles and developed an aptitude for business banking. Canada Goose online
buy canada goose jacket cheap “At that stage, in the late Eighties/early Nineties, Ulster Bank was a distant third behind AIB and Bank of Ireland for business banking. canadian goose jacket We significantly grew market share, partly by building canada goose coats on sale relationships with business groups like the Small Firms Association and the Institute of Certified Accountants.” buy canada goose jacket cheap
canada goose coats He was lucky at Ulster Bank to work with “really brilliant” people, he says, like former chief executive Cormac McCarthy, who went on to be CFO of Paddy Power, Canada Goose Coats On Sale and Ulster Bank Northern Ireland boss Ellvena Graham, who recently became chairwoman of ESB. canada goose coats
canada goose clearance McGrane’s predecessor at the chamber was Steve Aiken, who is now running for the Northern Ireland local assembly. canada goose clearance
canadian goose jacket The group also has a president, which changes regularly; its latest is Lloyd’s of buy canada goose jacket London’s Irish head Eamonn Egan, who is taking over from GlaxoSmithKline vice president Aidan Lynch. canadian goose jacket
Then there is its patron, Niall Fitzgerald, the former CEO and chair of Unilever and chairman of Reuters.
canada goose deals “When he speaks, people listen,” McGrane says. “He is a surgically brilliant business practitioner”. canada goose deals
There are a lot of organisations that seem to do similar things Ibec, the IDA, Enterprise Ireland and the Department of Foreign Affairs among them. It begs the question why was there a need for another.
