What's the significance of a new year and can it make a real difference? What kind of resolutions should we have for 2011? These are the kind of thoughts that were going through my mind as we closed out 2010. There is a lot to look forward to and I am going to lay out a few ideas for the business community to think about. By our nature we are a glass-half-full bunch of people and we really need to hold on to this positive side in spite of the onslaught of negative news. All that really counts will be in the future, and that is completely within our own control.

Opportunity is continually knocking so let's make it our first task to focus on this rather than the negative drivel that the usual array of media hacks will be moaning about by mid-January. We don't need a New Republic (with Fintan O'Toole as emperor) or anything like that, with its salary caps and endless debate. We are a small island nation ready to trade with the big mainland, and the world beyond. It does not matter if the Dáil has 166 spoofers, or 66 wafflers. Whoever is in there will only be making up the numbers for the real powerhouses in all of this: the markets and the ECB. We seem to have boxed away that little problem by taking on their pile of debt, and trimming the spending side of the books.

Let's remember that taking on debt is not the same as paying it off. This particular debt pile will never have to be paid off with 2011 euro, so put it out of your mind and get back to business. Debt is systemically only ever repaid through inflation and in the end, this will be no different.

The good news for 2011 is that the cost side of doing business in Ireland is still rapidly falling into line. A big deep recession is a great opportunity for new businesses to start, and for old weak dinosaurs to be weeded out. We will look back on the demise of the construction and development business in the years to come as a turning point for Ireland. This is creative destruction in action.

This year should mark the point where the domestic business community finally stops thinking about building stuff that nobody needs and begins to look out over the fence to richer horizons in the UK, Europe and beyond. I know a lot of property developers who are waiting for their industry to return. Their skills (and yes they do have valuable skills) can easily be transferred to other industries. The property business needs a strong and dynamic banking industry and I cannot see that appearing in Ireland any time soon. For those who want to hang around hoping to find the old days again, good luck. It's not a path that I will choose.

Corporations are the last bastion of protection from the tax-gathering efforts of our desperate government. The IMF/EU bailout cements the 12.5% corporate tax rate and it secures Ireland as a favourable area in which to incorporate your business. Personal and consumption taxes are now savage but these can be avoided by a business with corporate protection.

The taxman is not going to mess with the foreign direct investment community, and even the left wing of our political systems is onside on this point. We have an array of incentives for business from R&D tax credits to employment grants, so there is no excuse from the business community in this regard. The support is there, so get busy and grow your business.

The final key to our success needs to be teamwork. I witnessed on a first-hand basis the selfishness and greed of the boom and bust. Surely people now realise that we can only succeed if we help each other, and if we support and nurture our export businesses. Success will breed more confidence and therefore more success.

We have been put down by this recession for over three years now and I think we've had enough. Throughout history, we have overcome problems, and this is merely another problem to overcome.

Personally, I have never been more confident and excited about the future and hope these words put you in the same mood.