Sir, – As chair of the independent National Competitiveness and Productivity Council, I was pleased to read your editorial (“The Irish Times view on Ireland’s competitiveness: there is work to be done”, October 2nd) on the importance of addressing the new challenges facing Ireland’s competitiveness.
As well as reporting on the call by Pat Gelsinger, Intel’s global CEO, for Ireland to continue to compete for future international projects, you pointed to the need to address the competitiveness burdens on small and medium sized companies in Ireland. Your views resonate with those expressed in the Council’s recently published Competitiveness Challenge 2023, which your newspaper covered on September 28th.
Maintaining competitiveness requires a continuing focus, with a medium-term perspective supported by short-term actions. The medium-term perspective is well reflected in major Government policies, but achieving competitiveness requires their effective implementation.
If Ireland is to maintain competitiveness and improve living standards, the upcoming budget should demonstrate the Government’s commitment to, and policy alignment with, these medium term strategies. Specifically, budgetary changes should indicate how they are addressing what is causing a drag on our current competitiveness – the slow speed of delivery of key public infrastructure (including housing), non-competitive costs (such as legal and insurance costs), our underinvestment in research and development, etc.
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At a time when the economy is at, or close to, full employment, competitiveness requires careful expenditure prioritisation, followed by clear plans for implementation. – Yours, etc,
Dr FRANCES RUANE,
Chair,
National Competitiveness and Productivity Council,
Dublin 2.