The National Competitiveness Council (NCC) reports to the Taoiseach and the Government, through me on key competitiveness issues facing the Irish economy and offers recommendations on policy actions required to enhance Ireland’s competitive position.
The Council is undertaking a benchmarking research exercise comparing Ireland and the UK across a number of dimensions based on key indicators relating to competitiveness. This will provide a comprehensive statistical assessment of Ireland’s competitiveness performance. Its objective is to fully understand Ireland’s strengths and weaknesses, both current and future, in the wake of the UK’s decision to leave the European Union. It will highlight areas where policy attention should be focused to enhance Ireland’s offering.
The work is ongoing at present and will be completed by the end of Quarter 1 2017.
Benchmarking Competitiveness: Ireland and the UK
The Report will include a baseline of indicators, which will be broken down into all relevant aspects of competitiveness, from the essential conditions underpinning performance, to the policy inputs, outputs and competitiveness outcomes. These include the following:
1. Macroeconomic Performance
2. Competitiveness and Exchange Rate Performance
3. Trade
4. Enterprise and Entrepreneurship
5. Inward Investment
6. Labour Market
7. Prices and Business Costs
8. Productivity
9. Taxation
10. Access to Finance
11. Talent
12. Infrastructure
13. Innovation
14. Energy