If the economy was being run like a private business, the benchmarking pay awards would be postponed, the president of IBEC, Mr Maurice Pratt, said yesterday.

Speaking at the launch of a joint paper by the business lobby group and the Dutch national business organisation, Vno-Ncw, Mr Pratt said the awards should not be abandoned, just postponed until economic conditions improved.

He was addressing how the Government could improve the Republic's competitive position as the EU presidency approaches.

Responding to questions, Mr Pratt said benchmarking should be "delayed" rather than abandoned. He said employers signed up for the deal on the basis of certain productivity concessions from workers. He said benchmarking should only be paid if these were delivered.

Mr Turlough O'Sullivan, director-general of IBEC, said certain goals needed to be met during the Irish presidency.

He said enterprise needed to be boosted through less regulation and lower administrative costs. "EU laws need to be better screened through regulatory impact assessment," he said.

Research and innovation needed to be strengthened, he added, saying this could be achieved by cutting red tape and increasing the number of researchers.

Mr Jacques Schraven, president of Vno-Ncw, delivered a downbeat assessment of the Dutch economy's performance of recent years.

"In recent years we actually seemed to be trying to lose our competitiveness - in a very convincing way, unfortunately.

"Wages rose too quickly. As a result, Dutch products became overpriced in the world market. Our market share has been falling for some time. A position built up over many years has been surrendered in just a few," he told the gathering.