Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
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The Government’s Economic Recovery Plan laid the foundations for economic recovery and improving competitiveness emerging from the pandemic. Central to this was the scale of the unemployment challenge and getting people back to work, accelerating the provision of training, reskilling and upskilling. The Economic Recovery Plan set out an ambition of exceeding pre-crisis employment levels by reaching 2.5 million people in work by the end of 2024 with a two-pronged recovery approach: a focus on domestic SMEs, whilst leveraging and reinforcing the strength and resilience of the Foreign Direct Investment sector. We have hit that employment target early, with 2.55 million people now in employment.

The Government also receives advice from the National Competitiveness and Productivity Council (NCPC) on competitiveness and productivity issues facing the Irish economy. This year, in their annual report, Ireland’s Competitiveness Challenge 2022 - "Ireland's Competitiveness Challenge 2022 - Competitiveness" - the Council made 20 recommendations on the policy actions required to enhance Ireland’s competitive position and improve productivity. In November, the Department of An Taoiseach issued an official response outlining how the Government is responding or will respond to the twenty actions proposed by the NCPC - "gov.ie- Response to Ireland’s Competitiveness Challenge 2022 (www.gov.ie)".

The potential scarring effects of Brexit and then the pandemic have been minimised and our economic activity is strong. The Quarterly National Accounts for the third quarter of 2022 indicate that Modified Domestic Demand stands 9 per cent above the pre-pandemic level in the fourth quarter of 2019. GDP grew by 2.3 per cent in the third quarter due to strong MNC-related exports.

From this position of economic strength, on Wednesday 7th December, I published the White Paper on Enterprise 2022-2030which is available on my Department's website at white-paper-on-enterprise-2022-2030.pdf. The White Paper sets out the Government’s enterprise priorities in the period to 2030 set against an ambitious vision for Ireland’s enterprise policy, to protect economic competitiveness, and to respond to challenges and opportunities that have emerged as a result of the pandemic, wider economic and geo-political developments, digitalisation and an increased urgency to decarbonise industry. The White Paper vision is for a sustainable, innovative and high-productivity economy, with rewarding jobs and livelihoods in the period ahead.

To achieve the White Paper vision, Government will focus on seven priority enterprise policy objectives:

1. Integrating decarbonisation and net zero commitments where our targets are a 35% emissions reduction from Industry by 2030 and 45% emissions reduction from Commercial Built Environment by 2030.

2. Placing digital transformation at the heart of enterprise policy where our target is that 90% of SMEs are at basic digital intensity by 2030.

3. Strengthening the Irish-owned exporting sector where we are targeting 2.5% average annual growth in Irish-owned enterprise productivity by 2024, a 50% increase in the number of large Irish exporting companies by 2030, 2,000 additional Irish-owned exporters by 2030, and over two-thirds of Enterprise Ireland assisted new jobs between 2022 and 2024 will be created outside of Dublin.

4. Enabling locally trading sectors to thrive where our target is a 1% average annual increase in multifactor productivity growth in domestic sectors of the economy by 2025.

5. Advancing Ireland’s FDI and trade value proposition with targets of a 20% increase in IDA client expenditure in Ireland by 2024, and at least half of all FDI investments between 2021 and 2024 to be located outside of Dublin.

6. Stepping up enterprise innovation such that Gross Expenditure on R&D will increase to 2.5% of Gross National Income by 2030 and the Number of High-Potential Start-Ups is increased by 20% by 2024.

7. Building on strengths and opportunities where our targets are five national cluster organisations funded under a new National Clustering Programme by 2025 and unemployment not to exceed one percentage point of national unemployment rate in any region.

Implementation of the White Paper will be regularly reported on to Government through a monitoring and tracking of progress against identified targets and there will be biennial Implementation Plans.

Across Government we will also continue to prioritise our work on ensuring that Ireland’s business environment is attractive and supports sustained economic competitiveness, including in the areas of:

- Infrastructure challenges constraining enterprise policy

- Cost of Doing Business

- Skills and Talent

- Access to Finance

- Taxation, and Regulation.

I am also conscious that we need to make progress on basic infrastucure needs like adequate housing, energy and water. This requires cross-government collaboration and will be a focus of government in the coming years.