Republic falls to its lowest ranking for ‘doing business’

The Republic has fallen to its lowest ranking in the 12-year history of the World Bank’s “ease of doing business” standings despite improving its overall score since last year.

The World Bank’s Doing Business 2020 report compares the ease of doing business in 190 economies using quantitative indicators. The report measures aspects of business regulation that impact small domestic firms.

In the latest report, the Republic is ranked 24th, which represents a decline of one place from last year. The State’s ranking since 2009 has ranged from seventh (2009) to 24th (2020).

Within the euro area, the Republic is ranked sixth, also a fall of one position. This places it behind Lithuania, Estonia, Latvia, Finland and Germany, but ahead of many comparator countries including Austria, Switzerland, the Netherlands and Belgium.

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The State is ranked ninth in the EU – again, a fall of one position. However, a number of indicators have improved, such as the scores for protecting minority investors, registering property, and enforcing contracts.

The scores for the following five indicators declined since last year: starting a business, dealing with construction permits, getting electricity, getting credit, and resolving insolvency.

These declines were most significant in the starting a business and dealing with construction permits indicators, driven mainly by increased timelines to complete the procedures.

The Republic remains a top performer for paying taxes (fourth), protecting minority investors (13th), and resolving insolvency (19th).

Its rankings have improved for the protecting minority investors and enforcing contracts indicators, while its rankings have remained the same for paying taxes (fourth) and trading across borders (52nd).

The report highlights a number of areas where the State continues to lag behind the top performing economies: enforcing contracts (91st), registering property (60th), trading across borders (52nd), getting credit (48th), and getting electricity (47th).

In relation to the poor performance for enforcing contracts, the data used focus primarily on the efficiency of the commercial court system, measuring the time and cost of resolving disputes between two firms and the quality of the judicial process.

Improvement “is also required” in relation to starting a business. The report notes that the numbers of days to start a business in Ireland has increased from five days to 11 days.

Similarly, in the case of dealing with construction permits, it now takes 14.5 days longer compared to 2019.

However, the report points out that the State’s overall fall in the rankings is due to other economies such as Thailand and Germany improving their positions relative to the Republic.