Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I assure the Deputy that there is no complacency on competitiveness within the Government. We will not repeat the mistakes made in the past. In 2011, Ireland was ranked 24th in world competitiveness. The Deputy may have been a Minister of State in the relevant Department in the build up to that period and trying to improve our competitiveness. This is obviously disappointing and we need to take note of it. The reasons for Ireland's moving from sixth to 12 include Brexit; changes to international trading; exchange rate volatility; monetary tightening by the European Central Bank; and infrastructure development. The one over which we have control and to which we are responding is infrastructure. We have a €116 billion infrastructure plan for the next ten years to respond to that. We note this, but I assure the Deputy there is no complacency.

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