Government at heart of global slide

IRELAND’S backward slide in a crucial global league of economic competitiveness is an extremely worrying development.

It is indeed a bleak sign of the times that in terms of overall competitiveness we now rank 30th out of 102 countries a nosedive of bungee-jump dimensions from our record rating of fourth in the world three years ago.

Inexorably, since then, our competitiveness has been eroded to 11th in 2001, falling to 23rd in 2002, before reaching the current low of 30th.