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Ireland’s competitiveness confirmed – Minister Peter Burke

The Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment, Peter Burke, has welcomed the publication of Re-estimating Ireland’s International Competitiveness Performance, the latest bulletin by the National Competitiveness and Productivity Council (NCPC).

Minister Burke said:

"This analysis marks a very welcome contribution by the Council and confirms that the Irish economy is internationally competitive. However, we cannot become complacent, and there remains work to do in many areas. The Council’s findings will make a valuable contribution in the preparation of the Action Plan on Competitiveness and Productivity.

"Despite our strong international performance, we are also aware that there are challenges, and it is important that we do not take our current strengths for granted. This is reflected in the decision taken by Cabinet to expedite delivery of the Action Plan, which will play a key role in addressing these challenges and safeguarding our competitiveness performance into the future."

This Bulletin explores how Ireland’s performance in the IMD World Competitiveness Ranking 2024 is affected when selected indicators are rescaled using Modified Gross National Income (GNI*) in place of Gross Domestic Product (GDP).

The findings show that Ireland’s competitiveness performance remains strong with this adjustment. In fact, it rises by one position in the ranking, with improvements in three of the four pillars. The analysis explores how Ireland’s competitiveness profile changes when key metrics are recalibrated to better reflect the scale of the domestic economy.

The IMD World Competitiveness Ranking is a widely used international benchmark, assessing over 60 economies across four key pillars and 20 sub-pillars, and based on 250 individual measures. In the 2024 IMD results, Ireland was ranked 4th overall. The analysis included in this Bulletin involves replicating the IMD methodology from the ground up, in order to facilitate the substitution of GNI* for GDP for Ireland.

Key findings from the Bulletin include:

  • Ireland’s competitiveness ranking improves by one place when GDP-based indicators are adjusted using GNI*, with notable gains in Economic Performance (up seven places) and Infrastructure (up two places). Business Efficiency is unchanged, while Government Efficiency declines slightly, reflecting a more constrained fiscal profile when public finance metrics are expressed over a smaller income base
  • the analysis underscores the importance of context-sensitive benchmarking, especially when using international indices to inform national policy. This Bulletin highlights the need to interpret international indices critically, understanding their underlying assumptions, and where necessary, supplementing them with alternative analyses that better capture national circumstances

Notes

The National Competitiveness and Productivity Council (NCPC) was established in 1997 (then the National Competitiveness Council) to report to the Taoiseach, through the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment, on key competitiveness issues facing the Irish economy. In 2019, the NCPC was designated as Ireland’s National Productivity Board.

As part of its work, the NCPC makes recommendations on policy actions required to enhance Ireland’s competitive position. The NCPC publishes three main research outputs:

  • the Competitiveness Scorecard benchmarks Ireland against international competitors on areas of competitiveness and productivity. This is published every three years (and was last published in 2024)
  • the Competitiveness Challenge is an annual publication in which the NCPC makes recommendations for Government on key challenges to Ireland’s international competitiveness
  • NCPC Bulletins are short and focused research notes, examining specific topics within the sphere of competitiveness and productivity. The NCPC releases multiple Bulletins each year. These short pieces often feed into the NCPC’s main Challenges report

The members of the Council are:

  • Dr. Frances Ruane - Chair, National Competitiveness and Productivity Council
  • Dr. Laura Bambrick - Head of Social Policy & Employment Affairs, ICTU
  • Edel Clancy - Group Director of Corporate Affairs, Musgrave Group
  • Kevin Sherry - Interim Chief Executive, Enterprise Ireland
  • Ciaran Conlon - Director of Public Policy, Microsoft Ireland
  • Luiz de Mello - Director of Country Studies, Economics Department, OECD
  • Maeve Dineen - Chair of Ireland’s Financial Services and Pensions Ombudsman
  • Brian McHugh - Chairperson, Competition and Consumer Protection Commission
  • Gary Tobin - Assistant Secretary, Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment
  • Michael Lohan - Chief Executive, IDA Ireland
  • Liam Madden - Independent Consultant, Semiconductor Industry
  • Neil McDonnell - Chief Executive, ISME
  • Bernadette McGahon - Director of Innovation Services, Industry Research & Development Group
  • Danny McCoy - Chief Executive, IBEC
  • Michael Taft - Research Officer, SIPTU

Representatives from the Departments of the Taoiseach; Agriculture, Food and the Marine; Environment, Climate and Communications; Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science; Social Protection; Finance; Housing, Local Government and Heritage; Justice; Public Expenditure and Reform; Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media, Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth, and Transport attend Council meetings in an advisory capacity.

Research, Analysis and Secretariat from the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment:

  • Dr. Dermot Coates
  • Rory Mulholland
  • Dr. Keith Fitzgerald
  • Pádraig O’Sullivan
  • Erika Valiukaite
  • Jordan O’Donoghue
  • Patrick Connolly

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