Industrial Policy Response to the Covid 19 Crisis in Ireland – A Filière Approach

Abstract

The economic shock represented by the Covid19 crisis has been showing the limits of industrial policy choices such as that of the chosen globalisation model, a model characterised in particular by the relocation of “key” manufacturing activities away from EU countries and towards low-cost emerging countries. In relation to the Covid19 crisis, relocation emanates from industrial policy choices that have weakened the health filière (encompassing the chemicals & pharmaceutical manufacturing industries and the health service industry). The specific case of Ireland shows a strong manufacturing specialisation in the relatively resilient pharmaceutical industry, a strength undermined by a relatively inefficient health service industry. National policy responses have taken the form of a large number of schemes estimated to amount to some €5bn. Questions arise in terms of the ability of the EU, and of Ireland therein, to secure its health sovereignty in the future, and in terms of the implications of growing indebtedness, particularly in the euro-area.