Paschal Donohoe (Dublin Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

First, we do believe that we are going to get agreement from the European institutions to spend the rainy day fund in a counter-cyclical way. We are engaging with the Commission on that matter at the moment. It is doing some work across the EU in terms of developing these funds. Even within the current legal framework there is recognition of an exceptional circumstances clause. If we consider how that clause could be triggered, let alone how the policy in this area will evolve across the coming years, we believe we will be able to get agreement to use this fund in a counter-cyclical way.

Second, I would evaluate the labour share of income on the basis of the GNI*, as opposed to gross domestic product, GDP, or gross national product, GNP. As I have said on a number of occasions, I believe that GNI* is a more appropriate way to look at our income. If I consider it on that basis then the labour share of GNI* has not fallen as much as elsewhere. It would be my intention, across coming years, to see the labour share of the gross national income stabilise and then grow again. GNI* has been at the heart of many of the recent political difficulties that are being grappled with elsewhere at the moment.

In terms of how we do such work, I shall outline the two most obvious ways. First, we need to get more people working for longer and get more people back at work. Second, as the Deputy has said, we need to grow productivity. I am pleased to tell him that only a few weeks ago my Department and the OECD published a paper on how we measure productivity in Ireland at a micro level. We looked at what we think the productivity frontier is in Ireland and how that stacks up on the basis of firm size. We have all of those figures. He will see some trends that are positive and other things that must be addressed, particularly the gap between the growth in productivity in some companies versus smaller companies in different sectors. I shall forward the paper to the Deputy.