![\"Denis](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/Denis.jpg\")
<\/p>\nIreland is at the most significant crossroads of his lifetime, he said.<\/p>\n
He called on policymakers to push through radical political change to save the economy.<\/p>\n
The Digicel founder heavily criticised what he called a lack of urgency in the public sector, claiming, \u201cwe live in a two-speed Ireland\u201d where the private sector gets things done while the public sector stalls.<\/p>\n
O\u2019Brien also predicted that the next economic downturn was likely to happen soon, during a blistering 45-minute keynote speech at the Business Post\u2019s Economic Outlook Forum in Dublin.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe just cannot ignore what is happening,\u201d he said. \u201cWe now need a combination of political leadership, accountability, a radical sense of urgency and external expertise. Hubris is our biggest threat.\u201d<\/p>\n
O\u2019Brien called out Ireland\u2019s planning laws for \u201cseverely holding the country back\u201d, claiming three-year-long delays and judicial reviews were now the norm. He highlighted housing as the single biggest impediment to society and the economy’s future.<\/p>\n
O\u2019Brien listed the wider infrastructural bottlenecks harming Ireland, claiming the D\u00e1il could pass all necessary reforms over two weeks before the end of the year. He compared this to the Examinership legislation that was quickly passed in 1989 to save the Irish beef processing industry.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Taoiseach and the T\u00e1naiste need to drive this agenda forcefully on a daily and weekly basis. This is not happening now.\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Denis O’Brien<\/p>\n
Today’s News in 90 Seconds – Tuesday, November 11<\/p>\n
Considering how the private sector could assist in driving change, O\u2019Brien said the late Ryanair founder Tony Ryan could have been sent in to help Government remove blockages. He believes Ryanair boss Michael O\u2019Leary would be that person today.<\/p>\n
\u201dIn the 1990s, there was a secondment scheme to exchange public and private sector senior management,\u201d he added. \u201cIt was a huge success. This scheme should be reintroduced. The benefits would be enormous for both sectors.\u201d<\/p>\n
O\u2019Brien lashed out at the EU for being bogged down in bureaucracy, highlighting the pace of change in China and the US.<\/p>\n
The billionaire doesn\u2019t believe Europe will change under the current European Commission president, Ursula von der Leyen. He said Europe would be in \u201csafer hands for the future\u201d under former European Central Bank president Mario Draghi and advocated implementing his European competitiveness report.<\/p>\n
\u201cChanges can only be brought about by new people being put in charge to create a different future,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
O\u2019Brien also pointed to Ireland\u2019s role in facilitating a global tax system, where large corporations \u2018book\u2019 advertising or sales revenues in Ireland at the expense of countries like Kenya or Burundi, which get no sales tax, Vat or local employment benefits.<\/p>\n
O\u2019Brien described such tax schemes as \u201cmodern-day digital colonialism.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThese tax practices continue to contribute to a world of gross inequality, and is the main reason why African immigrants take huge risks in dinghies to reach rich European countries.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur role in this tax plan also needs to be debated. We can debate both sides of the argument. If Ireland is happy to continue to facilitate these tax arrangements, then we should do something meaningful to help Africa.\u201d <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ireland is at the most significant crossroads of his lifetime, he said. He called on policymakers to push…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":175014,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[73],"tags":[79,18,19,17,1265],"class_list":{"0":"post-175013","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-business","8":"tag-business","9":"tag-eire","10":"tag-ie","11":"tag-ireland","12":"tag-sean-pollock"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/115531383118469259","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/175013","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=175013"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/175013\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/175014"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=175013"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=175013"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=175013"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}