Mr. Martin Shanahan:

On competitiveness, the international rankings that track these matters show that Ireland’s competitiveness is improving year on year. The IMD or World Bank shows us progressing upward. The cost base is probably the most significant element feeding into that because the cost base in the early to mid-2000s was much higher as there was significant competition for resources, human, capital and everything else in the State when we were experiencing a property bubble. Our investment in research feeds into that, creating a talent pool. Labour market indices show we are improving. Our business environment and the ease of doing business are seen as extremely attractive and we improve on that annually. It is one of the main purposes of the action plan for jobs. We are moving up on that sub-index.