Bulletin 24-2 Ireland’s Competitiveness and Productivity Framework

Ireland’s Competitiveness and Productivity Framework bulletin outlines the National Competitiveness and Productivity Council’s (NCPC) recent decision to review the longstanding pyramidal framework. The revised framework replaces the previous pyramidal frameworks, the first introduced in 2003 and the second in 2016. This Bulletin provides background to the revision, and the changing environment which made the development of a new framework essential.

As concepts, competitiveness and productivity overlap and interlink in a variety of ways, and this revised framework speaks more effectively to the strong intersection of both. This change was motivated by the increased EU policy focus on both competitiveness and productivity and by the Government’s decision in 2019 to expand the remit of the Council to focus on both Competitiveness and Productivity.

The new framework differs fundamentally from its predecessors in presenting productivity and competitiveness as two mutually-reinforcing concepts (rather than simply conceptualising productivity as one of many sub-sets of competitiveness). The arrows in the inner circle visually capture this interconnected relationship. These two concepts overlap and interlink with each other through the drivers that determine them in achieving the overarching goal of sustainable growth and wellbeing. The main drivers included in the revised framework are Business Environment, Macroeconomic Sustainability, International Environment, Technology and Innovation, Education and Skills, and Infrastructure.