Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 23 January 2013
127. Deputy Micheál Martin asked the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation the actions he is taking to realise his commitment to make Ireland the best small country in which to do business; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [56511/12]
View answerThe Action Plan for Jobs has set out the objective of creating 100,000 jobs by 2016 and making Ireland the best small country in which to do business.
Ireland is already rated highly internationally as one of the best countries in the world in which to do business, and we have built a strong competitive basis on which to go out and compete on global markets. Ireland is currently ranked 27th in the World Economic Forum’s Global Competitiveness Index 2012-2013, with our position improving up to 20th in the IMD’s World Competitiveness Yearbook 2012. Ireland is also ranked 15th in the World Bank’s Doing Business 2012 Report.
There are a number of key areas where Ireland tops the global list, such as:
- business impact of rules on foreign direct investment;
- inflation;
- FDI and technology transfer;
- availability of skilled labour;
- flexibility and adaptability of the labour force; and
- investment incentives.
We have jumped ahead of a number of other small countries in the latest international competitiveness rankings, such as Belgium and New Zealand. We need to make sure that we tackle those remaining areas where we can best support our enterprises and our people.
What is even more important, though, is that Ireland’s underlying competitiveness potential, those important factors for achieving sustainable competitiveness in the medium and longer term, and having a supportive environment enabling enterprises to go out and do business successfully, are those factors where Ireland shows particular strengths. The EU Commission’s Competitiveness Report 2012 shows that Ireland is better than the EU average in the vast majority of the competitiveness indicators examined, including in relation to labour productivity, our share of high-tech exports, the energy intensity of industry and our overall business environment.
The Action Plan for Jobs 2012 contains over 270 actions designed to improve the operating environment for business, enhance our competitiveness and support the creation of employment. One of these actions focused on identifying specific actions we need to take to deliver the aim of making Ireland the best small country to do business. Forfás has prepared a Report which provides detailed costs profiles to assess the importance of various costs to 17 sectors of the economy and assesses Ireland’s cost performance vis-à-vis our key competitors across seven key cost categories. As well as acknowledging the range of activities that are currently underway to improve cost competitiveness, the report recommends a series of actions that would support further improvements in cost competitiveness, which the Government will pursue in 2013 and future years in order to achieve this objective.
The “Action Plan for Jobs 2013” will be published shortly, with the aim of building on the progress already achieved during 2012, and will set out further measures to improve our competitiveness with the overall aim of achieving our commitment to making Ireland the best small country in which to do business.
