Government publishes Action Plan on Competitiveness and Productivity

Government publishes Action Plan on Competitiveness and Productivity

• From: Department of the Taoiseach

• Published on: 10 September 2025
• Last updated on: 10 September 2025

Taoiseach Micheál Martin, Tánaiste Simon Harris, and Minister for Enterprise, Tourism and Employment Peter Burke have published the Action Plan on Competitiveness and Productivity today, after it was agreed by Government.

The Action Plan is a critical government policy that focuses on the economic areas that fall within our domestic sphere of influence. In light of the rapidly evolving global landscape, it's imperative that we are "controlling the controllables." This whole-of-Government Action Plan is the strategic response to the challenges Ireland is facing.

The Action Plan contains 85 actions for enhancing our competitiveness and productivity performance, with 26 of these identified as priority actions.

Welcoming the Publication of the Action Plan on Competitiveness, the Taoiseach Micheál Martin said:

"Ireland's economy continues to show strong resilience in the face of international uncertainty, but we cannot take this economic success for granted.

"Increasing our competitiveness and productivity today is of the utmost importance as we work to secure our economy tomorrow. This whole-of-Government Action Plan on Competitiveness and Productivity is designed to address the challenges we face and drive the necessary action and reform needed to help Ireland, our businesses, and our people thrive into the future."

Also welcoming the publication of the Action Plan today, the Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade, Simon Harris, stated that:

"The overarching objective of the Action Plan on Competitiveness and Productivity is to focus on matters within Ireland's domestic sphere of control. As a country we have weathered profound shocks and still rank among the world's most competitive economies. But the message of this Plan is simple: we will "control the controllables"-acting at home to stay resilient while shaping the rules abroad. We will do this by making the Irish economy more competitive and shock resistant to future adverse economic and trade developments".

The Minister for Enterprise, Tourism and Employment, Mr Peter Burke who brought the Action Plan to Government today for approval, stated that:

"The Action Plan reflects a whole-of-Government approach to domestic drivers of competitiveness, focusing on areas firmly within our national control. Its development has been informed through a process of extensive engagement with key stakeholders, a public consultation process which received 168 submissions, as well as drawing on the work of the National Competitiveness and Productivity Council. The benchmarking of Ireland's performance against other advanced economies has also played an important role in the development of this Action Plan".

Minister of State at the Department of Transport with responsibility for International and Road Transport, Logistics, Rail and Ports, Sean Canney said:

"While national in scope, a central ambition of this plan is to ensure that prosperity is spread evenly across all regions of the country, something which is very important to me. As Minister of State in the Department of Transport, I am delighted that the plan recognises that investment in our transportation links is central to regional development. Better connectivity to - and throughout - our island helps to attract and retain enterprises, supports jobs, and makes it easier for people to access opportunities. By strengthening these links, this plan will help to ensure that growth is shared across our country and that every region has the chance to thrive."

Also welcoming the launch of the Action Plan, Minister of State at the Department of Enterprise, Tourism and Employment, with responsibility for Trade Promotion, Artificial Intelligence and Digital Transformation, Niamh Smyth said:

"Harnessing the potential of AI and digital technologies more broadly is vital to maintaining our competitiveness. This action plan sets out eight measures specifically related to AI and digital adoption, including two priority actions. Through these targeted measures, we are supporting Irish enterprises to adapt, adopt, and benefit from digital technologies - ensuring that Ireland remains at the forefront of a rapidly changing global economy."

The Programme for Government calls for an Action Plan on Competitiveness and Productivity to be agreed within 12 months, and given the changing international economic and trading environment, the Government, earlier this year, decided to accelerate delivery of the Action Plan on Competitiveness and Productivity and expedite its preparation and publication.

The Action Plan contains 85 actions for enhancing our competitiveness and productivity performance, with 26 of these identified as priority actions. Actions are set out across six themes:

• Embracing research, innovation and skills.
• Boosting FDI and exports and influencing at EU Level.
• Creating and scaling more SMEs.
• Regulating for growth and controlling costs.
• Increasing the State's capacity to deliver infrastructure.
• Growing sustainable Irish businesses and boosting regional development.

Each action is assigned to a Government Department or Agency, which will have responsibility for its delivery within a specified time period. Implementation of the Action Plan will be overseen by a Senior Officials Group chaired by the Department of the Taoiseach.

The delivery of the Action Plan will be supported by the funding allocations agreed in the National Development Plan Review 2025, including the €3.68 billion allocated to the Department of Enterprise, Tourism and Employment and the €4.55 billion allocated to the Department of Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science.

Minister Peter Burke concluded:

"Our policies have excelled in the past when it comes to attracting investment and providing the right conditions for enterprise to thrive. But the global landscape has shifted and new challenges demand new thinking. To support indigenous enterprise and the foreign direct investment of tomorrow, we must pivot with purpose. This new Competitiveness Plan is our blueprint for that future."

-ENDS-

Notes:

Examples of some of the key actions contained in the Action Plan include the following:

• Establish a National Artificial Intelligence Office (NAIO), which will drive innovation and uptake in AI and act as the central co-ordinating authority for the EU AI Act, to ensure that we fully capture the strategic opportunity that AI presents.
• Establish an SME Scaling Fund of scale to increase the available public capital for direct and indirect investment to support scaling, to improve access and choice for founders and encourage new private capital into Irish market.
• Develop large-scale Next Generation Sites (NGS) as master-planned locations with property, utility and sustainable infrastructure, so as to attract transformational advanced manufacturing investment in key sectors, including in AI, semiconductors, life sciences and sustainability.
• Introduce a 'Red Tape Challenge' across Government to significantly reduce regulation for SMEs reflecting the European Commission's commitment to simplifying and reducing administrative burden for SMEs by 2029. This would include a review by each Government Department to identify regulations to be removed or reduced without impacting on policy objectives and a public consultation to identify areas of high burden or where burden reduction could be launched.
• Publish a new national Life Sciences Strategy.
• Design a medium-term plan to connect new, very large energy-intensive industries to the electricity grid, setting out actions to inform and enable a coordinated approach to future Large Energy User investments - including data centres - with respect to their location, alignment with the National Planning Framework, and integration into energy system planning.
• Scale Ireland's Technology Centres in the priority enterprise sectors to drive collaborative RD&I in SMEs and to anchor high-growth FDI companies in Ireland
• Develop a High-Performance Computing Strategy on a cross-Government basis encompassing Quantum, High Performance Computing, AI and data infrastructures to enhance Ireland's competitiveness in deep tech
• Enable Irish based firms to participate in Innovative Projects of Common European Interest (IPCEI), in key strategic sectors. Such IPCEIs will help to strengthen Ireland's and Europe's capacity and capability in frontier technologies as well as building value chains to secure Ireland's competitiveness in strategic sectors (including, but not limited to, microelectronics, AI and quantum computing).
• Develop policy actions that will incentivise pension fund and institutional investor participation, either directly or indirectly, into scaling equity funds to further enhance the Irish scaling ecosystem and consider options to promote the participation of retail savings in Ireland's capital market.
• Implement the outstanding recommendations from the Review of the Administration of Civil Justice: Review Group Report (2020) including: reform of legal discovery, reform of the wider non-planning judicial review process and development of new guidelines to set clear rates and scales of fees for civil litigation.
• Complete a 'State of Competition in Ireland' study by end-2025 to identify markets where policy intervention may be required.
• Provide the CCPC with new powers to impose administrative financial sanctions in respect of breaches of consumer protection legislation.
• Examine the scope for supporting energy intensive manufacturing sectors, under EU guidelines on State Aid for climate, environmental protection and energy, to ensure the competitiveness and resilience of Ireland's manufacturing base.
• Informed by findings from the Review of the Regional Enterprise Plans, establish a new Regional Enterprise Development Fund (REDF).
• Promote the digitalisation of tourism SMEs, establish test and learn pilot projects to support adoption of innovative technologies (Generative AI, IoT, Immersive Experiences) among tourism SMEs, and partner with EU Digital Innovation Hubs (EDIH's) to foster applied innovation within tourism enterprises.
• Establish a Stakeholder Forum of key agencies to focus on the actions required to facilitate swift progression of daa's planning application for the construction of infrastructure including additional pier and stand capacity at Dublin Airport to facilitate an increase in passenger numbers to 40m p.a. (while respecting independence of planning authority).

A link to to action plan can be found HERE