Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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Question 207: To ask the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment the extent to which he has examined the contributory causes to increases in manufacturing costs here; if he has examined the implications for employment; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [18828/06]

Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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Question 208: To ask the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment if price rises in the industrial sector are endangering Ireland's competitive edge; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [18829/06]

Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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Question 214: To ask the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment his proposals to reduce cost for small and medium enterprises; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [18835/06]

Michael Ahern (Cork East, Fianna Fail)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 207, 208 and 214 together.

All developed economies face rising costs at some point in their supply chain and Ireland is no exception. While the costs faced by business in some areas here may be relatively higher than other economies, the challenge is to maintain our competitiveness in areas such as skills, education, knowledge infrastructure and the quality generally of our workforce. In an international context, competitiveness, the ability to profitably and successfully trade against world competitors in the face of globalisation pressures while creating attractive investment and employment opportunities are the real benchmarks of a successful economy. Ireland is such an economy. Enterprise in Ireland is consistently generating profitable employment opportunities, which in turn provides the Exchequer with resources to invest in the economy and create jobs that improve living standards.

Over the past five years employment has grown by nearly 221,000 while Ireland is one of the world's leading recipients of foreign investment. For example, the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development ranked Ireland 4th in the world in 2004 for foreign investment. This compares with 51st place in 1990. The combination of strong employment growth and our attractiveness as a good place for FDI, especially in advanced and knowledge sectors, strongly suggests that our cost environment remains competitive. Ireland is one of the best places in the world to do business and this was supported last week when the IMD's World Competitiveness Yearbook placed us the 11th most competitive economy in the world and fourth in the EU.

While this places us ahead of most international competitor economies we can be neither smug nor complacent. Maintaining competitiveness and particularly for smaller businesses, is a frontline policy objective of this Government and will remain so. Support programmes to help firms become more productive and competitive are embedded in the operations of the enterprise development agencies. The Small Business Forum report, received yesterday, proposes interesting and exciting approaches to help competitiveness in the small business sector and I am determined that significant progress will be made on their implementation.