Farewell to our German Ambassador who 'will never leave Ireland'

For the past three years Ireland was fortunate to have a German Ambassador at a critical time in our history who really understood our Irish ways. He arrived with his wife Anne three years ago in 2011 when Ireland was about to enter a bailout deal with the Trioka - the European Central Bank based in Frankfurt, the European Commission in Brussels and the International Monetary Fund based in New York.

Dr. Eckhard Lübkemeier,German Ambassador to Ireland
Image Courtesy of tcd.ie

In Autumn 2012 we in the UCD Engineering Graduates Association were looking at ways of reinvigorating our organisation. We had our own 'Troika' at this task - outgoing EGA President Michael Loughnane, UCD Dean of Engineering Professor Gerry Byrne and myself. We also enlisted the wisdom and good counsel of former EGA President Dr Liam Connellan in planning the event.

We conceived a Panel Discussion on a subject of major national importance with leading speakers who would attract an audience. The principal media story in late 2012 was the terms of the banking bail out and the liklihood or otherwise of some monetary relaxation of its terms. Of paramount importance and influence were the views of the German Government and of its Chancellor Angela Merkel as Germany is recognised as the economic powerhouse of the Europe as well as the anchor of the Euro zone.

We settled on the title 'Can we shape Ireland's recovery on the German model' and we decided to invite the German Ambassador Dr Eckhard Luebkemeier to lead the discussion. This was through the good offices of Professor Gerry Byrne who has close industry and academic links with Germany having studied, lived and worked there.

We then picked a Panel of distinguished speakers drawn from different walks of life with a knowledge of Germany and of EU matters - Professor Brigid Laffan former UCD Professor of European Politics, Dr Brian Sweeney former Chairman/CEO Siemens Ireland, Management Consultant and UCD Engineer Stephen Donnelly Independent TD for Wicklow/East Carlow and UCD Dean of Engineering Professor Gerry Byrne who spent 10 years working for Daimler Benz in Germany and where he took his Doktor-Ingenieur degree in TU Berlin.

The event was a resounding success chaired by Pat Kenny then of RTE and led by the charming Ambassador whose intellect is as sharp as a razor. He had a difficult role in simply but frankly explaining the German view that Ireland itself was the author of its own misfortune through our overheated property market aided by over-lending and lack of proper regulation in the banking sector. Yet it fell to German Chancellor Angela Merkel to lead the EU out of recession and nurse the broken economies of Greece Spain Portugal and Ireland back to full health. This was and is still being successfully done as Ireland exited the bailout in December 2013 and now Portugal will soon also do so.

Pictured at the UCD EGA Debate were L-R:

P.J. Rudden President of UCD EGA,

Dr. Bridgid Laffan Professor of European Politics UCD,

Dr. Eckhard Lübkemeier German Ambassador,

Professor Gerry Byrne Dean UCD Engineering, Dr. Brian Sweeney,

 Stephen Donnelly TD and Debate Chair Pat Kenny.

The Ambassador was frank in his advice to Ireland - that 'just do it the German way will not work. A country's model can't be transplanted like a human organ'. He then outlined what is good about the German model. 'We offer high-tech combined with high quality. We make things that are coveted elsewhere. Our exports are worth about 40% of our GDP and an increasing share is going to BRICS economies'.

He asked what Barcelona football and German engineering have got in common?

'The Financial Times put it like this: they both hire and nurture apprentices'. Also, there is a social partnership arrangement in both public and private sectors - this only exists in the public sector in Ireland. 

'In Germany long before the recession as part of Agenda 2010 we had to launch a structural reform process that involved belt tightening on the part of German workers and consumers. We are now reaping the rewards of this process. This experience is also informing our approach to the Euro crisis which has laid bear some of its inefficiencies - too much public and private debt, too little competitiveness and too much financial alchemy in an unregulated financial sector'.

'Germany needs Europe and Europe needs Germany also. The crisis has shown that we need more joint decision making and common oversight. Better then to have a common currency that provides protection against erratic capital flows and significantly enhances the efficiency of the internal market. And better too to belong to a peaceful and prosperous European neighbourhood based on mutual trust and solidarity'

We bid farewell to a wise diplomat who he says 'will never leave Ireland' meaning in a literal sense of course.