Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 7 October 2004
79 Mr. Morgan asked the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment his views on whether house prices and lack of available child care are having a serious negative impact on competitiveness in the State. [23608/04]
View answerI should point out that housing policy and child care policy issues come under the auspices of my respective colleagues, the Ministers for the Environment and Local Government and Justice, Equality and Law Reform.
In so far as competitiveness issues are concerned, the National Competitiveness Council, NCC, monitors and reports on Ireland's competitiveness position. Each year the NCC publishes the annual competitiveness report and the national competitiveness challenge on the key competitiveness issues facing the Irish economy in the forthcoming year. These reports offer us an important insight into the present condition of Irish competitiveness and also offer a list of policy recommendations designed to protect and enhance Ireland's competitive position. The NCC expects to publish its reports for 2004 later this month.
In September this year the NCC published a statement on prices and costs. The statement which benchmarked Ireland's competitiveness ranking among a survey of 16 countries, focused on consumer prices, cost of labour, office rents, energy costs, telecommunications, insurance, local charges and the cost of capital. The statement confirmed that Ireland is an expensive location for many goods and services. However, house prices and the availability of child care were not specifically identified in the NCC's statement as impacting on competitiveness.
That said, clearly costs in these areas impact upon the cost of living generally which can in turn impact upon wage negotiations and ultimately payroll costs. However, in the case of housing, the record number of completions in the past year is having a decelerating effect on house price increases while progress in the implementation of the national child care strategy, which has a funding level of the order of €450 million over the period 2000 to 2006, is contributing to significant quality child care provision.
Improving Ireland's cost competitiveness will continue to be a priority for this Government. In this context I look forward to receiving the NCC's reports for 2004, and to addressing the issues to sustain Ireland's competitiveness.
