Shane Moynihan
Question:7. Deputy Shane Moynihan asked the Taoiseach if he will report on the response to Ireland’s Competitiveness Challenge 2024, published by his Department in November 2024. [1679/25]
View answerWednesday, 12 February 2025
Questions (7, 8)
Naoise Ó Cearúil
Question:8. Deputy Naoise Ó Cearúil asked the Taoiseach if he will report on the response to Ireland's Competitiveness Challenge 2024, published by his Department in November 2024. [4390/25]
View answerOral answers (16 contributions)
I propose to take Questions Nos. 7 and 8 together.
The Government's response to the National Competitiveness and Productivity Council's competitiveness challenge report 2024 was published on 5 November last. The Government's response was co-ordinated by the Department of An Taoiseach, drawing together material from relevant Departments. This was the fifth year in which a formal response was issued by the Government to the council's annual competitiveness challenge report. The response addressed the 20 recommendations made by the council to the Government. These recommendations included: enabling stronger productivity growth through research, development and innovation; reducing the burden of regulation and the cost of doing business in Ireland; accelerating progress on the usage and generation of energy in line with our climate targets; and improving the planning, development and delivery of infrastructure. In its response, the Government welcomed the advice and views of the council and agreed on the importance and relevance of its recommendations to Ireland's continued competitiveness.
For a significant majority of the recommendations made by the council, meaningful action is under way and this is outlined in the formal response. These actions include the allocation in budget 2025 of a record €14.9 billion for capital investment and the decision to allocate an additional €3 billion from the proceeds of share sales to boost public investment in housing, energy and water infrastructure; the introduction of an initiative to minimise the regulatory burden on SMEs, including by rigorously applying the new SME test across Departments; and the phased commencement of the Planning and Development Act 2024 to enhance efficiency and certainty in the planning system. Additionally, for the first time, a competitiveness summit was held on 2 December last to consider Ireland's competitiveness challenge, drawing on presentations from the chair of the National Competitiveness and Productivity Council and the OECD. That ensured a focus on competitiveness concerns in advance of budget 2025.
As outlined in the programme for Government, the principal aim of the new Government is to protect the future security of our economy through increasing the productivity and competitiveness of our domestic and international business. This work will continue to be informed by the analysis and recommendations of the National Competitiveness and Productivity Council.
Mar atá ráite ag an Taoiseach, tá tábhacht faoi leith ag baint le cumas iomaíochta na tíre. I very much welcome the outline or blueprint that has been given in the Government's response to the competitiveness challenge. I will focus on two chapters of that report where focus is needed over the coming years. The first is with regard to the role of SMEs. I am proud to be a member of the board of Ace Enterprise Park, which focuses on start-ups in the broader Clondalkin, Bawnogue and Neilstown area, but an issue is coming down the track regarding how we help what I call scale-ups, that is, those companies that have gone past their start-up phase and need support from the State, space in the main, to make sure they stay up as companies. I would welcome the Taoiseach's thoughts on that.
The second aspect, relating to chapter 4 of the report, was alluded to by Deputy Malcolm Byrne earlier and I am sure he will focus on the digital side of things in his contribution. There is work we need to do in our focus on sustainability-related and green skills across the workforce. We can speak about conversion and energy and about transitioning in travel, transport and so on, but fundamental to a serious approach to climate action is embedding green skills across the wider workforce, not only in construction and sustainability-focused enterprises but across the entire workforce. We have, I think successfully to a point, embedded a digital-first approach in the skills programmes we have for our workforce. We now need to think about how we will take a green-first approach, and this is something I will raise with the Minister, Deputy Lawless, as well.
I agree with my party colleague Deputy Moynihan, particularly about that gap for companies that move from being supported by local enterprise offices to a point where they can be supported by Enterprise Ireland.
He and I are very much in agreement on digitalisation and the AI strategy we talked about. A key part of this is investment in skills. Critical to that is ensuring that the requirements of funding our future, the funding programme for higher education, are met. That is referred to in the competitiveness challenge.
I am also interested in how we can provide support to our innovators and entrepreneurs, particularly those looking at exporting. In these turbulent times, we need to defend the importance of free trade internationally. This is something that is built into the programme for Government and that underpins the competitiveness challenge report. There is a significant section in that report about Ireland's support for the capital markets union at EU level. It is critical we look at unlocking as many sources of funding as possible for Irish enterprise. Will the Taoiseach indicate if, in the context of the EU Presidency, Ireland will pursue that?
There are other issues tied to that concerning international trade on which it would be of help if the Taoiseach gave an indication. One is the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement, CETA, with Canada. As the Taoiseach knows, we have increased business between Ireland and Canada significantly in recent years. Signing the CETA is critical to further develop that.
I previously raised with the Taoiseach Ireland's membership of the unified patent system. That is critical for Ireland's intellectual property and its protection. It requires a referendum to proceed. I ask that we proceed with it as soon as possible.
On competitiveness, the Taoiseach knows housing is a key challenge. The Taoiseach said himself there are issues with the refurbishment of long-term voids on a large scale. There is something that could be done to change this. On the cost of refurbishing long-term voids, the assumption is that it is spread over ten years. For other capital projects, it is usually spread over 30 years. If the Taoiseach wants to do something positive, that could be changed. There is no evidence base for it being restricted to ten years. It is holding up many of those projects.
I recently met members of a campaign group, Access for All Ireland. An issue they raised with me is how the housing crisis is affecting disabled people. As the Taoiseach knows, according to the Ombudsman there are more than 1,200 disabled people under the age of 65 living in nursing homes. They are an unsuitable setting for most of these people. It can affect their mental health and it infringes on their independence. What is the Government doing to address the scandal of more than 1,200 disabled people under the age of 65 living in nursing homes?
Classical economists Karl Marx and David Ricardo, on different sides of the political spectrum, agreed that all wealth is derived from labour. One of our biggest problems is skills shortages in every sector of our economy, whether it is construction, the health service, education or retail. The reason is increasing numbers in their tens of thousands of young people are bailing out of the country because they cannot afford to live here. If we are talking about competitiveness, this is the biggest challenge. I do not like competition as the basis of an economy but let us say we need the economy to function in order----
The Deputy is fairly competitive in here.
Society is not a football game. Perhaps the Taoiseach thinks it is. We need our housing to be affordable for young people and to remove financial barriers to education that drive many of our young people out.
I will let the Deputy's colleague in. I ask him to be brief for the Taoiseach to respond to all queries.
The quickest, easiest and most immediate response to the housing crisis is to deal with the scourge of vacancy and dereliction. In almost every estate in Dublin South-West one will find vacant houses. These are perfectly good homes or they were at one stage. They could be used to house families. Instead, they are a blight on the community. We got figures recently that 14,500 of the more than 100,000 vacant properties in the country are located in Dublin. There are more than 10,000 families in emergency accommodation in Dublin. This is the easy answer. We recently put a motion before South Dublin County Council calling on it to use its powers to bring these properties into public ownership by means of compulsory purchase orders and use them for social housing. Fianna Fáil abstained and Fine Gael voted against. Does the Taoiseach agree that this is what needs to be done nationwide, namely to use these vacant homes?
Do your best, Taoiseach.
I am conscious that Deputy Shane Moynihan and-----
When we start, it is a rotation and when we are out of time, we are out of time.
Dúirt an Teachta Shane Moynihan go raibh fonn air béim a chur ar na mionchomhlachtaí agus aontaím leis. Phléigh sé conas is féidir linn iad a threisiú agus a dhéanamh níos láidre diaidh ar ndiaidh agus an tslí ar féidir linn é sin a dhéanamh.
On competitiveness, the scaling up of smaller companies has been a key agenda item for Enterprise Ireland for quite a long time. It takes a great deal to form a company and grow it. After ten to 15 years, many entrepreneurs, if they have developed a fine product and company, may sell to a larger international company and call it a day because of the exertion involved. That is not often appreciated in this House. That is what I said during the election campaign about the economic model in Ireland. It has to support entrepreneurial activity and small to medium-sized companies. That economic model is worth protecting, which is why it is important to go to the United States, be global and be involved with all others.
On the digital side, I agree 100% on sustainability around green skills. Deputy Moynihan had a great idea, but it is embedding it widely across the workforce, not just in specific areas; we tend to say we need it here or there.
Deputy Byrne raised some key issues. On service-based companies and those supported by local enterprise, sometimes it takes a while for them to get into the Enterprise Ireland slipstream. Our support systems are primarily for export-oriented companies. That is an issue. Good work has been done by the LEOs but there needs to be greater synergy and connectivity between the LEOs, Enterprise Ireland and the supports we offer. The importance of free trade is the most important point that was made this morning. The era of free trade has been responsible for the greatest rise in prosperity in the world ever. It is under threat, however. There has been growing protectionism across the world from different countries and major states. The Government is committed to ratifying the Canada-European Union deal. That was opposed in this House by Deputies opposite who were all against it because of investor clauses. Business has gone up 30% for Irish companies exporting to Canada. It has worked. It is provisionally in place. We now need to ratify it and get on with matters in that respect.
Taoiseach, unfortunately, we went over time on an earlier group of questions. There is an option to write to the Deputies.
On the EU capital markets union, I discussed that with President Costa. Ireland will have a key role. That needs to happen for the future of Europe and releasing capital on European -----
Thank you, Taoiseach. We went over time on an earlier group and, unfortunately, the time available for this group was shorter. There is a maximum of 45 minutes for this session. Perhaps the Taoiseach will respond in writing. I will leave the matter with him.
Cuireadh an Dáil ar fionraí ar 1.58 p.m. agus cuireadh tús leis arís ar 2.58 p.m.
Sitting suspended at 1.58 p.m. and resumed at 2.58 p.m.