Irish productivity 'unexceptional' says research commissioned by John and Patrick Collison

Research paper argues for tax and policy changes to support high growth Irish businesses

According to the paper, the level of productivity at foreign firms is around six times the level of productivity of domestic firms.

The Government needs to consider policies and tax changes that can help start-ups build and scale their businesses because as it stands productivity in the domestic firms is “unexceptional” and its capacity to help “maintain high living standards in Ireland is in serious doubt,” a new paper has found.

In the paper, Professor Alan Ahearne of the JE Cairnes School of Business and Economics at the University of Galway argues that living standards in Ireland over coming decades “will depend largely on productivity, which in turn will be determined by technological progress”.