Dara Calleary (Mayo, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Ireland was in the top ten in the World Bank's competitiveness survey in 2010. During the Minister's period in office we have fallen behind Estonia and Macedonia in the global rankings. The Minister referred to Ireland's competitiveness strength. I will cite some facts as opposed to offering fictional spin. New business interest rates for non-financial corporations are up to 81% higher in Ireland than in the rest of the euro area and our electricity and energy costs are significantly higher than the average in the euro area. Any improvement in Ireland's competitiveness is the result of reductions in labour costs which have nothing to do with Government policies because they are being shouldered by workers.

The Minister spoke about strengthening the National Competitiveness Council, yet the Government ignored the council's recommendations as well as its statement that Ireland's environment for entrepreneurship was poor in international terms. The Minister constantly refers to the necessity to support start-up businesses, yet Ireland has fallen six places in the rankings for ease of starting a business. If Ireland is to be the best country in the world in which to do business in 2016, as the Taoiseach declared in one of his rambling statements, we are a long way from achieving that objective and without specific responses, we will not move closer to achieving it.

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