Feargal Quinn (Independent)

I will do my best to improve. Two years ago, Ireland stood at 11th place in the competitiveness rankings, which was a highly respectable and desirable position. Last year we plunged from 11th place to 24th place. That was a warning, if ever there was one, that our chickens were coming home to roost. Last week's figures show we have taken another fall. We are now in 30th place. Our international competitiveness fell from 11th to 30th place in just two years. Some 29 other countries are more attractive places in which to do business. These countries will be more effective in attracting the highly mobile foreign investment on which our future economy so critically depends.

Some years ago we would not have been concerned at being ranked 30th, but to drop from 11th to 24th to 30th place almost sounds like free-fall. These figures illustrate just how quickly things can change in today's highly volatile world. In a short space of time one can go from a place in which everyone wants to be to one that is so far down the list that it never gets chosen at all.

I cannot make the point strongly enough, loudly enough or often enough that regaining our international competitiveness is the single most important factor in determining this country's future. I am not just talking about our economic future, as so much else depends on our economic well-being. We have engaged in the temptation of living on the laurels of the Celtic tiger long after the rest of the world has passed us and gone on to other things. If we allow this precipitous decline in our competitiveness to continue, we are digging our own economic grave.