Too much advice gets in way of action

It might be a little churlish to greet the announcement of the new Enterprise Strategy Group with the question: How many quangos does it take to plan industrial policy?, asks Cliff Taylor  Economics Editor

But the announcement of the new group does beg questions, first about its remit in relation to other advisory bodies and second about whether its existence will allow the Government to kick important policy actions to touch, with the excuse of waiting to see what the group has to say.

The group's remit, as outlined by the Tánaiste, Ms Harney, is to "chart Ireland's enterprise strategy over the next decade". It is to be a re-run of the 1992 Culliton report or, for those with a long memory, the 1982 Telesis report.

The group - chaired by businessman Mr Eoin O'Driscoll - deserves to be wished the best of luck and no one will argue if it succeeds in plotting a successful economic future. However, its remit is very close to that of the National Competitiveness Council, established in 1997 and charged with looking at "key competitiveness issues for the Irish economy, together with recommendations on policy action required to enhance Ireland's competitive position".

Ms Harney's department argues that the new Enterprise Strategy Group will take a broader perspective and that the work of other advisory bodies will feed into it.

However, the Competitiveness Council also had a wide brief. Compare the two remits, as published. The Competitiveness Council is charged with preparing and submitting to the Taoiseach each year "a report on the main challenges facing the enterprise sector over the medium term and the policy responses to meet them" as well as examining and monitoring competitiveness issues.

Its remit is broad, covering prices and costs, infrastructure, regulation, competition, science, technology and education.

The new Enterprise Strategy Group, which will report to the Tánaiste, is charged with developing "a medium-term enterprise strategy" and national policy responses to "strengthen the competitiveness of Ireland's enterprise environment", promote a knowledge-driven economy, underpin the industries of the future, encourage start-ups and examine the scope for added value to the economy. In other words, both have a very similar brief. And while the full membership of the new group has still to be announced, both it and the Competitiveness Council will include leading business people, union representatives and academics. And both will be supported in their work by Forfás, which itself is meant to advise the Government on the direction of industrial policy.

Nor is the Government short of advice from other bodies - most notably the recent report of the National Economic and Social Council, which covered all the main areas of economic policy.

With the Competitiveness Council due to publish its annual report later this year and the Enterprise Strategy Group to report in "six to nine months", there will be one group reporting to the Taoiseach and another to the Tánaiste within a short period, covering much the same ground.

It is to be hoped that this does not lead to the kind of political in-fighting that surfaced after the publication of the Culliton report, when the then Fianna Fáil/PD coalition tore lumps out of each other over the shape of the industrial agencies, delaying the publication of a Government response for 15 months. It was finally delivered by a Labour minister, Mr Ruairí Quinn.

In the meantime, key questions - such as how the Government will deliver a first-class road and rail infrastructure at a reasonable cost - remain unanswered. And industry continues to be squeezed by the high costs of doing business here.