Niall Collins (Limerick County, Fianna Fail)
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25. To ask the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation the steps being taken to reverse the continual fall in business competitiveness levels and making Ireland an attractive location for business to locate, particularly Ireland's competitiveness standing with the UK; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [6323/17]

Mary Mitchell O'Connor (Dún Laoghaire, Fine Gael)
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Ireland moved from 16th to 7th in 2016 in the IMD’s World Competitiveness Yearbook, and from 24th to 23rd in the 2016 WEF Global Competitiveness Report. The World Bank’s “Ease of Doing Business” report shows Ireland is ranked 18th. The World Bank report shows Ireland is ahead of the UK in terms of ease of starting a business and paying tax but behind in the overall rankings.

Ireland’s improved competitiveness performance has been central to employment growth. Brexit means we must do more to enhance our attractiveness as a location to start and locate a business.  The 2017 Action Plan for Jobs sets a target to achieve a top 5 global competitiveness ranking based on the IMD measure by 2020. The Plan sets out a range of actions to further enhance competitiveness and help achieve this objective.

To improve competitiveness we must consolidate Ireland’s traditional strengths such as talent, productivity and export competitiveness and address areas such as infrastructure where we lag other countries.

As Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation, my focus is on ensuring Ireland is a competitive location internationally to establish and run a business. We are stepping up investment in infrastructure.  We are driving the implementation of our research strategy Innovation 2020. We are putting more people on the ground in foreign markets to attract investment and to help Irish business who export to the UK and helping others diversify into new markets.