Ms Linda Kane:

The Deputy is absolutely right. We have a unique economic set-up here where there is quite a divergence between very high productivity growth within the multinational sector and a quite a diverse mix between the indigenous SMEs. One of the things that gets disguised in some of the aggregate data for Ireland is productivity looks quite high and that productivity growth has been remarkable compared with all our OECD peers. The areas driving that growth are ones like ICT and manufacturing in things like pharmaceuticals. Those are the areas that are driving that very high level of productivity, but the indigenous firms are more mixed. In the past the council has called for more research to be done on the underlying drivers of what is happening in the indigenous sector and the areas where we see potential for improvement. That would be things like investment in education and skills. We are talking about digital skills, management skills, areas where there is potential for growth where we want Irish SMEs to be doing quite well and taking advantage of the digital transition, the move to cleaner energy and the climate transitions. We are talking about getting investment in skills needed for those areas. We are also talking about innovation policies. We are talking about encouraging Irish firms to invest in new products and new services to enable them to compete internationally. We need to see that investment there on the skills side and on the innovation side to get those firms up to speed and ready to compete in those markets.