James Geoghegan (Dublin Bay South, Fine Gael)
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363. To ask the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment the date on which the planned Competitiveness Summit will take place; who will be invited to participate in this Summit; whether the Action Plan on Competitiveness and Productivity will be announced in advance of or at this summit; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [34149/25]

Peter Burke (Longford-Westmeath, Fine Gael)
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The Competitiveness Summit will take place on Monday, 7th July. The Competitiveness Summit will be hosted by An Taoiseach, and as such, invitations are a matter for that Department. In September 2024, the Competitiveness Summit was attended by a number of Ministers, the Chair of the National Competitiveness and Productivity Council, along with representatives of the OECD, IDA Ireland, Enterprise Ireland, and the CCPC.

I intend to bring forward a draft of the Action Plan on Competitiveness and Productivity for discussion at the Competitiveness Summit, and for consideration by the Government ahead of finalisation and publication.

The Action Plan will focus on domestic policy measures which can make the Irish economy more competitive and resilient to economic shocks – a large part of this will focus on SMEs. It is expected that the Plan will address areas which are impacting on the ability of SMEs to compete internationally, these include but are not limited to: business costs, SME scaling, and increasing the rate of RD&I among firms.

The overarching objective of the Action Plan is to maintain and improve Ireland's position as a competitive and productive economy capable of withstanding shocks, building on our strengths and developing our indigenous enterprise base while continuing to attract investment and talent from abroad. The Action Plan will, therefore, contain a set of actionable recommendations with clearly defined implementation timelines and departmental ownership.