Vol. 544 No. 3
180 Mr. Durkan asked the Tánaiste and Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment if she proposes to take steps to ensure Ireland's continued competitiveness in the world economy; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [28999/01]
The European Competitiveness Report 2001, which has just been prepared by the European Commission, shows Ireland in an extremely favourable light in comparison with other member States of the European Union.
Ireland is one of just three states cited as recording high rates of GDP growth, while scoring very high both in terms of employment growth and labour productivity growth.
In terms of GDP per capita in EU member States Ireland is ranked second, after Luxembourg, for 2001 and we are, in fact, in first place as regards growth of real GDP in member states ranked according to performance over the period 1995 to 2001.
We are also in first place as regards both employment growth and labour productivity in member States as shown by the average annual growth of GDP-employed persons in per cent, ranked according to performance over the same period.
In addition to these macro indicators, the report also points out that Ireland, in common with some of the Nordic countries, is approaching U.S. levels of business investment in ICT as a percentage of GDP, while some of the larger countries have performed less well.
