Industry leaders, entrepreneurs, trade unionists and academics will sit on a Government taskforce conducting an overview of economic and employment policy.

The Enterprise Strategy Board, unveiled earlier this week by the Tánaiste, Ms Harney, is to recommend ways of making the Republic more attractive to investors as the State moves from being a low-cost location to a high-cost one.

The chairman has already been named as Mr Eoin O'Driscoll, managing director of consulting firm Aderra. Other members include: Dr Reg Shaw, managing director, Wyeth; Mr Des Geraghty, general president, SIPTU; Mr Alan Dwyer, managing director, Eurostyle; Mr Rory O'Donnell, director, the National Economic and Social Council; Dr John Hegarty, provost of Trinity College, Dublin; Mr Frank Kenny, founder of Delta Partners venture capital firm; and Ms Rita Gunther McGrath, assistant professor of management of organisations, Columbia Business School; Mr Jim Hoey, managing director of Masonite Ireland; Mr Hugh Friel, managing director of Kerry Group; Mr Nicky Hartery, who is responsible for Dell manufacturing operations in Europe, Middle East and Africa; Mr David Griffin, chief risk officer, AIB; Mr Martin McVicar, managing director, Combilift; Mr John Sutton, chair of the economics department, London School of Economics; Ms Liavan Mallin, founder and chief executive of Shopdirect Group, formerly Celtic Hampers; and Ms Mary Meaney, director of the Institute of Technology Blanchardstown and chairwoman of the Council of Directors of Institutes of Technology.