Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)

I move:

That Dáil Éireann,

notes that:

the competitiveness of the Irish economy has weakened in recent years, as evidenced by our fall of 17 places since 2000 in the Global Competitiveness Report;

growth rates in Irish exports have fallen below peer countries in recent years and our share of global trade has declined each year since 2002;

Irish productivity growth has been below the OECD average since 2003;

high inflation in pay and non-pay costs is undermining Irish cost competitiveness; and

despite high levels of spending, Ireland's rankings for the quality of our infrastructure, particularly for transport, energy and broadband communications, have not improved significantly since 2000;

is concerned that our investment levels in research and development remain well behind the EU and OECD averages and the Lisbon target;

believes that decisive and sound economic management is now required to halt Ireland's diminishing competitiveness;

calls on the Government to agree:

to commit to eliminating the gap between Irish and eurozone inflation by bringing Irish inflation to 2% or lower for 2008 and beyond;

to take the necessary actions on regulatory reform, public sector pay and taxation to ensure that this target is achieved;

to implement the recommendations of the Business Regulation Forum in order to improve Irish competitiveness;

to introduce the necessary reforms to ensure swifter delivery, better value for money and more service competition to properly develop Ireland's national infrastructure, particularly in communications and transport; and

to promote the creation of a lifelong learning culture in addition to developing better-performing higher level educational institutions.

I wish to share time with Deputies Deirdre Clune, Simon Coveney, Lucinda Creighton, Kieran O'Donnell and Tom Hayes.

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