A proposed Government forum to ease regulatory burdens and reduce business costs should hold “quarterly meetings to discuss the cost of doing business” in the Republic, business lobbyists, representative bodies and trade unions have recommended.
Published on Friday, the so-called cost-of-business advisory forum’s final report lists 63 action items for the Coalition, “aimed at reducing business costs, strengthening competitiveness and easing regulatory burdens”.
Comprising industry groups like Ibec, the American Chamber of Commerce Ireland and the Irish Congress of Trade Unions, the cost-of-business forum was established by Minister for Enterprise Peter Burke last year. The initiative was originally proposed in the programme for government.
Among other things, the forum’s final report has recommended that an economic regulators’ forum aimed at bringing the State’s regulators together with the businesses they regulate, which the Government proposed to establish last September, should meet each quarter to discuss the cost of doing business.
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“The forum members noted that Ireland suffers from ‘regulatory drift’,” according to the report.
It recommended that once the Department of Taoiseach establishes the forum, it should “host quarterly meetings between regulatory bodies, enterprise sector [sic] and trade unions on the cost of doing business”.
Proposed in the Coalition’s plan on competitiveness, the goal of the forum is to improve “co-ordination and consistency across regulators”, Burke told the Dáil earlier this year.
The forum is to be established between 2026 and 2027, according to last year’s plan.
Separately, the cost-of-business forum has also called on the Coalition to introduce “targeted measures” aimed at increasing energy price transparency for “non-domestic” customers, “particularly for the SME sector”.
Energy emerged as one of the biggest issues discussed by the forum, which identified it as the “principal contributor to rising business costs”.
Against this backdrop, the report has recommended amending the Commission for Regulation of Utilities’ mandate to “ensure consideration is given to affordability for non-domestic customers” when decisions around network investment and other “pass-through costs” are being made.
The Coalition should also consider the scope for “supporting energy-intensive manufacturing sectors” to help alleviate energy cost pressures.
Commenting on the final report, Burke said the cost-of-business forum’s work “is already having an impact”. He said its recommendations are “directly informing” the energy affordability taskforce established by Minister for Energy Darragh O’Brien in advance of Budget 2027.
“The concerns and recommendations raised in the final report are a key consideration for me in this ongoing engagement,” he said.
Forum chairman Kevin Foley said he hoped the report would act as a “catalyst for meaningful” Government action “to reduce the cost and complexity of doing business in Ireland and foster a business environment where enterprises can invest, innovate, and sustainably grow”.
