Doing Business 2020: Ireland delivers mixed results

April 2020

In this year’s report, Doing Business 2020: Comparing Business Regulation in 190 Economies, Ireland fell to its lowest ranking in the 17-year history of the report. Although Ireland equalled its 2019 score of 79.6, it fell one place to 24th position. Among its EU counterparts, Ireland fares well, ranking sixth in the eurozone and eighth in the wider European Union.  
 
In maintaining its score, Ireland improved its ranking in three categories while declining in five categories. Ireland fell 13 places to 23rd position in Starting a Business, as a result of an increase of five days in the time taken to carry out the three necessary procedures. In Protecting Minority Investors, Ireland improved its score by five percentage points, moving up two places to 13th in the rankings. Perhaps Ireland’s most impressive performance was in maintaining its fourth position in the important category of Paying Taxes, ranked behind only Bahrain, Hong Kong and Qatar. 
 
More broadly, New Zealand and Singapore maintain their places in the top two, but Hong Kong moves up one place into third, with Denmark dropping to fourth.  The ten most-improved nations were: Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Togo, Bahrain, Tajikistan, Pakistan, Kuwait, China, India, and Nigeria.  
 
Doing Business 2020 is the seventeenth annual report published by the World Bank. It measures reforms and regulations implemented in 190 economies across the globe over a 12-month period that ended on 1 May 2019. Russell Bedford International is a global contributor to the report and has helped the World Bank in researching its annual Paying Taxes survey since 2009. Many Russell Bedford member firms also took part as regional contributors to the report. 
 
Dublin based Cooney Carey was an active contributor to Doing Business 2020. Tony Carey, managing partner at Cooney Carey commented: “In maintaining its 2019 score, Ireland has shown it’s still a great place to do business, particularly when utilising Cooney Carey’s local expertise. Inside the EU, Ireland has much to commend itself and ranks favourably with Germany and better than economies such as Spain, France and The Netherlands. It is worth highlighting that while Ireland’s ranking in Starting a Business fell, it is still easy to start a business in Ireland. Inside the EU, only Greece and Estonia rank higher, and it is significantly cheaper and easier than the EU average to start a business in Ireland.” 
 
To access the full country report click here.