Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 7 June 2012
73 Deputy Bernard J. Durkan asked the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation if he is satisfied regarding this country’s competitiveness in the manufacturing and service sectors; the extent to which our main rivals in this regard have been identified; the emerging trends; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [27677/12]
Amharc ar fhreagraThe Government has an ambition to make Ireland the best small country in the world in which to do business by 2016. To achieve this objective, we must improve our international competitiveness and the competitiveness of companies based here.
The Action Plan for Jobs, which was launched on 13th February, aims to transform the operating environment for business in order to improve competitiveness and support enterprise growth and job creation. The Government has also identified, in the Action Plan, a number of key sectors where Ireland can gain competitive advantage in global markets, including in manufacturing and a number of services sectors.
The National Competitiveness Council, in its annual Competitiveness Scorecard report, benchmarks Ireland's competitiveness performance against many of its closest trading partners and competitors. The Council has identified an improvement in Ireland's competitiveness in recent years. This improvement is reflected in the World Competitiveness Yearbook 2012, published in recent weeks by the Institute for Management Development (IMD). Of the 59 countries benchmarked by the IMD for 2012, Ireland ranked 20th overall, up from 24th in 2011, and 8th out of the 24 EU countries featured. Ireland was ranked first in a number of areas, including in relation to investment incentives, skilled labour and attitudes towards globalisation.
This is a very positive and encouraging performance. However, more must be done to ensure that the improvements we have achieved are structural in nature and sustained in the longer-term. One of the key actions to be undertaken by my Department and Forfás this year under the Action Plan for Jobs is to identify a set of competitiveness indicators where Ireland's international performance can be improved through domestic policy action. In the areas identified, we will quantify the level of improvement necessary and we will set out the policy actions required to achieve this goal.
