Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)

We will exchange aseries of parliamentary questions on that issue, which we can discuss at a later stage.

The Minister referred to his commitment to tackling inflation in areas where the Government has direct influence. As I pointed out, however, 58% of inflation is related to Government services and Government-regulated services.

The Minister welcomed the report of the National Competitiveness Council, as I do. However, while the council reported that infrastructure and inflation are the key issues with regard to competitiveness in Ireland at present, the Government is not tackling these issues. The report clearly shows no progress has been made year on year with regard to achieving competitiveness targets.

Some believe that the Ireland of the past decade is as good as it gets. I believe that, for Ireland, the best is yet to come. We still have the chance to emerge from the current downturn with a robust and innovative private sector and an efficient and reformed public sector in an economy based on sound public finances, low taxes, a favourable cost base and regulatory environment, world-class physical and technological infrastructure, a flexible labour market and an education and lifelong learning system that stays ahead of the curve — in short, a nation ready to enter the next phase of economic and social development. However, we can only do this if we make the right policy choices now. In my view, this means making the restoration of Ireland's economic competitiveness our number one economic priority.

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