Productivity profile of Ireland

Department of Enterprise, Trade, and Development (DETE): leads a whole of government approach to developing the most competitive environment for investment, productivity and sustainable jobs growth.

National Competitiveness and Productivity Council (NCPC): acts as Ireland’s National Productivity Board and reports to the Taoiseach and the Government through the Minister for Business, Enterprise and Innovation on key competitiveness issues facing the Irish economy.

DETE: An evaluation of the Impact of Remote Working (2022), What is behind aggregate productivity growth in Ireland? A granular approach (2019);

NCPC: Ireland's Competitiveness Challenge 2023 (annual report) (see also The Government's Response to Ireland’s Competitiveness Challenge 2023), Bulletin 21-5 Firm Dynamism and Productivity (2021), Productivity Statement (2019);

Central Statistics Office: Productivity in Ireland (multiple);

OECD: OECD Economic Surveys: Ireland (multiple), Economic Policy Reforms 2023: Going for Growth - Ireland, Patterns of Firm-Level Productivity in Ireland (2018), Productivity spillovers from multinational activity to local firms in Ireland (2018).

Promote a productive business environment:

• Monitor business licensing requirements and the systems that facilitate them, including by linking more licensing procedures with the Integrated License Application Service.
• Give the Irish Competition and Consumer Protection Commission adequate enforcement powers to fight anti-competitive behaviour, including the capacity to impose sufficient penalties on competition law infringements to ensure a deterrent effect.

Strengthen the qualification of the labour force and support labour mobility through inclusive social insurance:

• Prioritise implementation of the EU Directive 2019/1152 to extend the coverage of minimum standards for workers and cost-free training to all forms of dependent employment.
• Require those freelance platform workers who are effectively dependent employees to pay a Pay-Related Social Insurance premium equivalent to that paid by dependent employees and introduce an employer contribution.

Introduce the “digital postbox” system and develop new digital government services that improve citizens’ interactions with public administration.