Minister Bruton welcomes continuing improvement in Ireland’s competitiveness

The Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation, Richard Bruton TD today (Wednesday) welcomed the publication of the latest World Economic Forum Global Competitiveness Index 2014-15, showing Ireland up three places in the rankings to 25 ^th . This is Ireland’s best ranking in this index since 2009.

The announcement follows other evidence of improvements in Ireland’s global competitiveness performance, including:

·         Steady improvement in Ireland’s ranking in the IMD competiveness rankings over recent years, up from 24 ^th in 2011 to 15 ^th in 2014. The 2014 ranking represents Ireland’s highest position in this series since 2008

·         Forbes Magazine placing Ireland at No. 1 in its most recent Best Countries for Business ranking

Speaking today from Australia, where he is leading a joint Enterprise Ireland/IDA Ireland trade mission along with 32 Irish companies, Minister Bruton said:

“Improving our competitiveness is a key part of the Government’s Action Plan for Jobs. By making it easier for Irish companies to do business in world markets, and more attractive for multinational companies to locate operations here, we can make a real difference to the level of job-creation. That is why we have made difficult decisions over the past three years in order to allow us avoid increases in labour taxes, why we have reformed the wage-setting mechanisms to make them fairer and more responsive to changing circumstances, as well as a range of other measures to improve our competitiveness.

“Announcements like this make it easier for me in a very tangible way to go in to boardrooms in cities like Sydney and Melbourne, as well as Boston and Beijing, and try to persuade foreign companies to invest in Ireland. It also makes it easier for Irish companies, with support from my Department through Enterprise Ireland, to sell their goods and services around the world from an Irish base, thus creating jobs at home.

“Today’s announcement, coming after a succession of positive economic data including yesterday’s Exchequer returns, gives us further confidence that the plan we have adopted is working. The challenge now is to press on with this plan, support the growing economy and create the jobs we need”.