Frances Fitzgerald (Dublin Mid West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I have just come from a detailed discussion on competitiveness that was held by Enterprise Ireland. This is clearly a cutting-edge issue for companies to deal with in the months ahead particularly in view, as the Deputy said earlier, of the Brexit challenge. Despite intense competition, the trajectory of Ireland's competitiveness performance is positive. Ireland moved from 16th to sixth place in 2017 in the IMD's World Competitiveness Yearbook. The World Bank's most recent Doing Business 2018 report shows Ireland is now ranked 17th out of 190 countries, an improvement of one place on last year. We can see that we are competitive. It can be seen in the strong employment growth across all sectors. There is no room for complacency. We need to continue to improve the environment for doing business in Ireland and remain vigilant to the very significant challenges in the external environment.

The immediate challenge for Ireland is to ensure growth continues, enterprises are resilient and the economy is internationally competitive. A range of work is being done on FDI. The continued focus of IDA Ireland is working with companies abroad that will invest here. A strong pipeline of investment is due in Ireland. All the companies I meet are extremely positive about the experience in Ireland, the diverse workforce they can attract and their experience of doing business here. We often talk about red tape but companies are positive about it. Enterprise Ireland's work is also important.

I will shortly bring the National Competitiveness Council's annual Competitiveness Challenge report to Government. I pay tribute to it for the work it does. We recently held a meeting in Farmleigh House with the stakeholders. It was clear that the companies are doing much work. The chair of the National Competitiveness Council was very involved in that and continues to work closely with the Department and Irish businesses to maintain that competitive edge.

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