Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 23 January 2024
244. Deputy Louise O'Reilly asked the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment where Ireland currently ranks on the World Bank 'ease of doing business' index; what plans his Department has to improve this; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [2812/24]
View answerPublication of the World Bank’s (WB) indicators, in the Doing Business report, has now been suspended indefinitely, while the WB formulates a new approach to assessing the business and investment climate in economies worldwide. It is expected that a new set of indicators, to be published as the ‘Business Ready’ (B-Ready), will not be available in the near term. However, there are alternative tools that can be used to assess Ireland’s performance in this regard.
On 20th June 2023, the Institute for Management Development (IMD) published its World Competitiveness Yearbook 2023. This year’s report ranks Ireland as the most competitive country in the euro area and the 2nd most competitive economy in the world (out of 64 economies), an improvement from 11th position last year.
The IMD Competitiveness Yearbook assesses and ranks 64 economies around the world based on their ability to create and maintain a competitive business environment. The rankings are based on more than 336 indicators grouped across four pillars: Economic Performance, Government Efficiency, Business Efficiency, and Infrastructure.
Ireland rose six places under Economic Performance between 2022 and 2023 (up from 20th position in 2021). Ireland’s ranking under Government Efficiency continued to improve in 2023, reflected in a move from 13th to 7th place in 2023. Ireland’s performance in Infrastructure improved marginally in 2023 (ranked 19th up from 23rd in 2022). Finally, Ireland improved its performance under the Business Efficiency pillar in 2023, moving up from 11th in 2022 to 3rd place in 2023I.
The National Competitiveness and Productivity Council published its Competitiveness Challenge report in September 2023. The Council has made 19 policy recommendations to Government centred around the areas of infrastructure delivery, energy generation and consumption, as well as improved performance on research, development, and innovation. The Government published its response to Council’s recommendation on 28th November 2023.
The Government’s approach to enterprise policy continues to be guided by the priorities set out in the White Paper on Enterprise 2022-2030 – published in December last year. The White Paper aims to ensure that Irish-based enterprises can succeed internationally, through a focus on innovation and productivity. To achieve the vision set out in the White Paper on Enterprise, across Government we are focused on seven priority enterprise policy objectives:
• integrating decarbonisation and net zero commitments;
• placing digital transformation at the heart of enterprise policy;
• advancing Ireland’s FDI and trade value proposition;
• strengthening the Irish-owned exporting sector;
• enabling locally trading sectors to thrive;
• stepping up enterprise innovation; and
• building on Ireland`s existing strengths and opportunities, through a clustering approach.
Wider supports for SME`s and Entrepreneurs set out in the White Paper on Enterprise 2022-2030 include; supporting firms to decarbonise and providing fiscal support for firms in the green and digital sectors; improving access to finance for start-ups and scale-ups; increasing the number of first time exporters; increasing productivity growth in domestic sectors; expanding programmatic supports to capture additional SME`s/Entrepreneurs; enhanced assistance for HPSU`s; and reducing the regulatory burden on SME`s/Entrepreneurs.
The White Paper also includes an examination of the key components of the competitive enterprise environment including cost of doing business, alongside infrastructure, skills and talent, access to finance, taxation and regulation. The first Implementation Plan for the White Paper on Enterprise was published in May of this year, and identifies a portfolio of 40 new and ongoing initiatives and projects across the seven priority objectives set out in the White paper. The first update report detailing progress made across Government on these initiatives and projects is due to be published shortly.
