Billy Kelleher (Cork North Central, Fianna Fail)
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213. To ask the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation her views on the National Competitiveness Council's recommendation to undertake a benchmarking exercise comparing Ireland’s performance across a range of key competitiveness metrics with the UK; if this has been completed; and if not, the reason therefor. [17319/18]

Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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The National Competitiveness Council (NCC) reports to Government on key competitiveness and productivity 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 addressed the implications of Brexit in several 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.  With regard to the Council's recommendation that a benchmarking exercise comparing Ireland’s performance across a range of key competitiveness metrics with the UK, the Council published a report Benchmarking Competitiveness: Ireland and the UK in April 2017, 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.

Throughout 2017 and into 2018 the NCC in its work and reports has continued to place an increased policy emphasis on Irish competitiveness relative to the UK and to benchmarking Ireland’s relative performance with specific reference to the UK.