“Urgent action is required to ensure a competitive operating environment for business and to enable exporters to trade successfully in difficult international markets”. So says Dr Don Thornhill, Chairman of the National Competitiveness Council, in their recent report Ireland’s Competitiveness Challenge – creating a better future.

Ireland is currently experiencing one of the deepest recessions in the developed work, driven by a steep decline in the domestic economy and the international financial crises. As the world economy is likely to return to growth more rapidly than the Irish economy, export driven growth can play a key role in restoring the Irish economy to growth. In addition to sustaining and growing employment in exporting sectors, including tourism, export success will increase sub-supply demand for Irish goods and services across the economy and can help support a recovery in consumer demand.

While Ireland’s competitiveness has improved during 2009, this to a great extent reflects the sharpness of the recession rather than competitive advantages arising from structural change. Urgent action is required to develop an enduring competitive operating environment for business and enable exporters to trade successfully in difficult international markets.

The report points out the critical necessity of understanding the basic drivers of competitiveness, and what needs to be done to improve Ireland’s international standing. The report rightly reminds us that following a sustained period of increasing competitiveness in the 1990’s and early 2000’s, we took a wrong turn when strong growth in the domestic economy replaced exports as the key driver of economic growth. Growth derived from housing and consumer spending, fuelled by low interest rates and reckless lending was not a sufficient basis for sustainable growth, and it seriously damaged our competitiveness.

The report highlights the priority policy actions to restore Ireland’s international competitiveness, which include:

- reducing the costs of doing business, especially energy, waste and professional services;
- enhancing the skills of those in employment and improving the employability of those who have lost their jobs;
- the need to ensure open competitive markets in all sectors of the economy and to drive competition in non-traded services sectors in particular through the effective implementation of Competition Authority recommendations;
- fostering innovation at all levels of economic activity including R&D programmes which have strong industry relevance and participation;
- developing world class advanced broadband networks and services in key regional centres to support the smart economy; and
- continued action to restore the sustainability of the public finances and ensure credit is channelled to viable businesses.

Ireland can have a bright future provided we confront these challenges and exploit the opportunities for creating a more competitive economy.

CLICK HERE to access a Powerpoint presentation on Ireland’s Competitive Challenges. Or for the full report, Annual Competitiveness Report 2009 CLICK HERE.

January 27th 2010

The Dublin Airport Authority (DAA) has unveiled a major new financial incentive scheme aimed at encouraging traffic growth at Dublin Airport this year.

The Dublin Airport Growth Incentive Scheme, which was launched to airlines today, will see Dublin Airport effectively waiving all airport charges for passenger traffic once a threshold of 19.5 million passengers has been breached.

If the passenger target of 19.5 million is surpassed, the DAA will subsequently refund the airport charges for all of the additional passenger traffic to its airline customers.

The DAA has also today expanded the financial supports that it provides to airlines launching new short-haul routes from Dublin. The short haul route support scheme, which previously had specific geographic constraints, has now been extended to cover any new qualifying route from Dublin Airport.

Under this support scheme, airlines receive a 100% discount on airport charges for the first year of any new route, a 75% discount on charges for the second year of operation, and a 50% discount on charges in year three.

Dublin Airport’s existing long-haul route support scheme, which offers five years of significant discounts on passenger charges for new long-haul routes, is also being maintained.

Dublin Airport Director Robert Hilliard said Dublin Airport had substantially expanded its support mechanisms to encourage its airline customers to grow their operations from Dublin. “This is a broad package of generous incentives and I would urge all of our customers to examine how these schemes can benefit their individual operations at Dublin,” he said.

The Commission for Aviation Regulator (CAR), which regulates charges at Dublin Airport, has set the maximum price cap for this year at €9.32. Under the new Growth Incentive Scheme, the DAA will effectively rebate the amount charged for each passenger over and above the 19.5 million threshold set within the scheme.

The 19.5 million trigger threshold is 5% below Dublin Airport’s traffic level for last year, when 20.5 million passengers used the airport, and is significantly less than the traffic level at the airport in 2006.The trigger figure of 19.5 million passengers is also the CAR traffic forecast for Dublin Airport in 2010, on which the regulator based its airport charge for this year.

January 20th 2010

Terminal Two at Dublin Airport is scheduled to open later this year, in November. The external structure is now fully in place, and work is at an advanced stage with the internal fit out.

A new road system will make getting into and out of the airport a breeze.

CLICK HERE for an update on how this fantastic project is nearing completion.

January 13th 2010