Minister for Jobs, Enterprise & Innovation Mary Mitchell O’Connor has
welcomed the National Competitiveness Council's Report benchmarking
Ireland & UK competitiveness, which she says will help inform Ireland’s
ongoing response to the economic challenge posed by Brexit.
The report identifies a range of priority areas which will require policy
responses in the short, medium and long term to safeguard Ireland’s
national competitiveness.
"The Council's report provides a timely reminder of Ireland's strengths,
which need to be protected and enhanced, and also of areas where we need to
remain vigilant and accelerate progress on addressing competitiveness gaps
with the UK so as to ensure job creation across all regions," commented
Minister Mitchell O'Connor.
While the Council advises against any narrowing of the tax base which would
leave Ireland exposed and says it must be ensured that the tax system
supports and rewards employment, enterprise, investment and innovation it
has commended the Government’s efforts in bringing fiscal stability and
improved performance, describing it as ‘exceptional’.
The 2017Action Plan for Job sets out an ambitious target for Ireland to
achieve a top 5 global competitiveness ranking based on the IMD
Competitiveness Scorecard by 2020.
The challenges posed by Brexit provide urgent impetus to pursue policies
that enhance our competitiveness performance. We have already begun steps
to address this, prioritising investment to improve the availability and
quality of infrastructure as part of the Review of the Capital Plan and the
forthcoming National Planning Framework.
The report finds that a skilled labour force must be the key emphasis for
retaining and winning mobile investment and the growth of a cohort of
internationally-trading indigenous companies. We are continuing to invest
in skills development under the National Skills Strategy.
We are enhancing access to competitively priced sources of finance for
growth to facilitate businesses to establish and grow, including non-bank
financing sources and increasing public investment in R&D to enhance
Ireland’s innovation performance.
The Minister says her Department and the Government are very conscious of
the need for a sustained focus on competitiveness and, ahead of the report,
had already set out 20 actions in the Action Plan for Jobs to ensure we are
prepared for the immediate and more medium term impacts of Brexit. “Through
the reforms set out in the 2017 Action Plan for Jobs, my Department and
others are working to improve the ease of doing business, reduce the
administrative burden by putting transactions on-line, enhance our cost
competitiveness such as addressing insurance costs, increase innovation
capacity and productivity and drive greater efficiencies across the
enterprise base.”
The Minister continued: “My Department is also increasing resources for
Enterprise Ireland and IDA Ireland to increase the competitiveness of our
indigenous enterprise base and enhance our attractiveness as a location for
FDI relative to the UK. We have increased resources for the enterprise
development agencies. Enterprise Ireland has published its new strategy for
the period to 2020 while IDA Ireland is undertaking a progress review of
its five year strategy. We are undertaking a review of our own Government
enterprise policy Enterprise 2025. We are examining the sector-by-sector
implications of the UK leaving the Single Market. Work is underway on
possible future supports for SMEs that could be impacted by Brexit. And as
a follow-on to the Government’s new Trade and Investment Strategy, Ireland
Connected, launched in March, Enterprise Ireland will shortly publish its
Eurozone Strategy."
“So much has been done already to respond to the challenge of Brexit and we
will continue to implement improvements to policies that were identified as
priority areas in the report. Competitiveness is key to success in
international markets and helping businesses to improve their
competitiveness will remain a key focus for my Department and the
Government”, commented Minister Mitchell O'Connor.