Dr. Tom McDonnell:

That is a very good question. As the Deputy knows, Ireland ranks very highly in terms of competitiveness. We are one of the highest ranked countries in Europe, full stop. We tend to do well across most competitive measures. We certainly do well on the level of enterprise supports we give, for example, the whole network around Enterprise Ireland and the IDA is considered a very successful model and indeed it is. However, there are glaring red lights flashing as regards our competitiveness and by far the most prominent is infrastructure, where we do very poorly. For us, boosting competitiveness is, to a large extent, about increasing productivity. One can be competitive in a way that keeps wages high and is not about pushing costs down, in what we might call the British model. Instead, there is a high-road model where everyone, employers and workers, can both gain. That means productivity, an innovation system, infrastructure, human capital in terms of education and having all those pieces in place which do not give immediate returns, but make a more productive economy over a five, ten or 15-year period. It also means not necessarily pouring money into sectors that are low-value added.