Ireland is ready to import automobiles - Essay Example

Conclusions can be drawn from this: Fiscal policy was tight and yet the crisis happened, and ironically, entry into the eurozone can be harmful. “Again, the debt overhang would be huge, under any plausible assumptions. Ireland is doomed to fiscal stringency for decades, given its poor growth prospects, at least in comparison with its Tiger years” (Wolf, 2011). But, despite the dire straits, Ireland is exiting the recession (Fottrell, 2010). And, since Ireland is unlikely to keep up with the need to produce automobiles, it will need to import them.

Ireland is ready to import automobiles, or at least as ready as it ever will be. 2.1. Dire financial straits Ireland's crisis is of an immense magnitude. 50,000 people could leave the country in 2011, yet another wave in a series of exoduses stretching from early Irish settlers in North America to the Irish potato famine to the 1980s (McDonald, 2011). And unlike other generations of exodus, it is professionals and graduates leaving the country. Jobs for graduates and professionals are scarce.

The economy has shrunk by a tenth and unemployment is in the double digits (MacDonald, 2011). Yet the economy was host to, and still does have, Microsoft, Apple, Intel and Pfizer. The middle-class was expanded and grew upwards, almost all Irish sharing in the growth. Aside from the slowly turning upswing out of the recession, there are many other macro-economic indicators that point to the need to import cars. In 2010, the Irish auto market grew (Leggett, 2010). People who need to physically get places, industrial and service sector workers, are not the ones leaving the country.

Industrial production is likely to slow, and Ireland's native car market will not be able to keep up with demand, even with the declining Irish population from the eventual exodus. It is clear, then, that Ireland is going to need to import cars. 2.2. Car finance options Despite the bad economy, British firms like Close Motor Finance are seeing a gap in the Irish market. “A UK-BASED MOTOR finance company, Close Motor Finance, is entering the Irish car finance market this week in an attempt to fill the gap it perceives to have been left after the withdrawal by some lenders and the tighter restrictions imposed by the remaining Irish finance houses” (Comyn, 2011).

This is vital for the growth of the Irish car market because it allows consumers access to credit even when the native banks are facing serious risk. It also shows that external observers view the growth potential in the car market as palpable. This announcement is much-needed news for the Irish car market. “66 per cent of all sales in 2007 were financed by loans organised through the dealership with its favoured lending institution. By last year that had fallen to 44 per cent and from January to October of this year that had fallen to just 26 per cent of all its car sales” (Comyn, 2011).

The vast majority of Irish consumers are being forced to seek out their own finance options. 2.3. Growing market for imports in Ireland The imported car market in Ireland is generally growing, albeit with mixed signals. Hispano Cars, “[t]he Irish firm that imported and distributed Seat vehicles”, lost the lucrative Seat contract, but this is because Volkswagen itself is deciding to push into the Irish market (Daly, 2011). Hispano Cars