The Irish Exporters Association (IEA) today (July 22nd 2010) welcomed a report by The National Competitiveness Council (NCC) and Forfas showing significant improvements in the cost of doing business in Ireland. However, the IEA warned that much of the improvement had come as a result of exchange rate movements, and the IEA noted that the Report shows that the costs of a range of public services continue to rise rapidly, for example; the cost of waste water charges increased by 18.8% during 2009, and the cost of health and education services also continued to rise.
John Whelan, Chief Executive of the Exporters organisation, welcomed the Report and stated;‘’It is essential that public policy focuses on reducing those costs that comprise a significant percentage of business costs , and continue to affect exporters cost competitiveness .“And whereas we are happy to see some cost competitive improvements , the Report still indicates that Ireland’s relative cost competitiveness performance in the areas of labour, property, utilities, and business services are still too high for sustainable export competitiveness .’’
‘’Labour costs are still the 10th highest in the OECD, rental costs for industrial sites are still the 3rd most expensive , electricity costs for sme’s are still 15% above the Euro area average, landline telecommunications costs are still the 5th most expensive of the 14 countries benchmarked .’’
In conclusion, John Whelan stated;‘’We must be aware that prices and costs are falling in most of our competitor countries, and as we had lost competitiveness in the early part of the decade, we now have to reduce our costs faster to maintain a relative cost competitiveness in the euro area, and be better equipped to export to dollar and sterling trading areas, if the exchange rate moves against us again.’’ ‘’Sustainable export growth will come if we can maintain our cost competitiveness’’.

End For further information, please contact
:John Whelan
Chief Executive
Mobile: 087 9271243