National Competitiveness Council

The National Competitiveness Council (NCC) is an independent policy advisory body in Ireland. It reports to the Taoiseach on key competitiveness issues facing the Irish economy together with recommendations on policy actions required to enhance Ireland's competitive position. It was established by the Irish Government in May 1997 as part of the Partnership 2000 Social Partnership agreement. Forfás, Ireland's national agency for policy advice in the areas of enterprise, trade, science, technology and innovation, provides the research and secretariat functions for the National Competitiveness Council (NCC).

Structure

Council Members are appointed by the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Innovation, and include representatives of the employer and trade union movements, including IBEC and ICTU. The composition of the Council also includes persons with relevant expertise in competitiveness. The CEO of Forfás and a representative of the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Innovation, typically the Assistant Secretary-General responsible for national competitiveness, are automatically Council members, under the terms of reference of the Council.

Representatives from the Departments of the Taoiseach, [1]Department of Tourism, Culture and Sport , Department of Communications, Energy and Natural Resources, Department of Education and Skills, Environment, Heritage and Local Government, Finance and Transport and from InterTradeIreland attend Council meetings in an advisory capacity. The NCC meets five or six times each year.

Chairman of the Council

#	Name	Sector	Appointed	Retired
1.	Brian Patterson	Private Sector	May, 1997	Unknown, 2001
2.	William Burgess	Private Sector	Unknown, 2001	November, 2004
3.	Dr. Don Thornhill	Public Sector, Higher Education	May, 2005	Incumbent

Publications

Each year the NCC publishes the two-volume Annual Competitiveness Report. Volume One, Benchmarking Ireland’s Performance, is a collection of statistical indicators of Ireland’s competitiveness performance in relation to 17 other economies and the OECD and EU averages. Volume Two, Ireland’s Competitiveness Challenge, uses this information along with the latest research to outline the main challenges to Ireland’s competitiveness and the policy responses required to meet them. The 2009 Challenge report was released in January 2010.

Where appropriate, the NCC also issues statements on key competitiveness issues. In July 2010, the NCC released a study on the Costs of Doing Business in Ireland 2010 [2]. In April 2009, the NCC published a Statement on Our Cities; Drivers of National Competitiveness. In March 2009, the NCC published a Statement on Education and Training. In the past, it has issued statements on Wellbeing and Competitiveness, Prices and Costs, Productivity Performance, Innovation, Inflation, Labour Supply and Skills and Regulatory Reform.

As well as publishing statements, the NCC also regularly makes submissions on issues relating to Ireland’s competitiveness. For example, in June 2008, the NCC issued a submission to the Commission on Taxation, while in November 2006, the NCC issued a submission to the National Development Plan 2007-2013.

External links

• Official site

See also

• Forfás