Stephen Donnelly (Wicklow, Fianna Fail)
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636. To ask the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation the number of meetings which have taken place with the National Competitiveness Council in the context of Brexit; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [25417/17]

Mary Mitchell O'Connor (Dún Laoghaire, Fine Gael)
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The National Competitiveness Council (NCC) reports to Government on key competitiveness issues facing the economy and offers recommendations on policy actions required to enhance Ireland’s competitiveness. The NCC is independent of Government and under its Terms of Reference is responsible for the management and direction of its own work programme.

Since the UK referendum, the NCC has met 3 times and considered the impact of Brexit on competitiveness at all of its meetings.

The NCC has addressed the implications of Brexit in a number of publications. The Council’s Competitiveness Challenge 2016 report published in December 2016 contained a specific chapter in relation to Brexit. This outlined a range of issues which will require policy attention to support Irish firms trading with or dependent on UK markets, and to ensure that Ireland is best placed to withstand the challenges posed by Brexit.

 In April 2017, the Council published a report Benchmarking Competitiveness: Ireland and the UK, which provides an assessment of Ireland's current competitiveness performance with specific reference to the UK, to establish areas where policy attention could enhance Ireland’s competitiveness. These reports were considered by the Cabinet Committee on Economy, Trade and Jobs and noted by Government.

The NCC will continue to actively monitor Ireland’s international competitiveness performance with specific reference to the UK in its Costs of Doing Business in Ireland report which is due to be published shortly and its annual Competitiveness Scorecard report which will be published in Q3 2017.  Actions to enhance Ireland’s competitiveness performance will be set out in the NCC’s Competitiveness Challenge 2017 report which will be published in Q4 2017.