Niall Collins (Limerick County, Fianna Fail)
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409. To ask the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation the reason page 41 of Enterprise 2025 Renewed ranks Ireland number six of the most competitive small countries in the world using the World Bank’s Doing Business ranking in view of the fact that the 2018 table ranks Lithuania, Estonia, FYR Macedonia, Georgia, New Zealand, Singapore, Denmark, Norway and Finland ahead of Ireland. [12733/18]

Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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Ireland ranks 17th of 190 economies on their ease of doing business based on 11 different indicators using the World Bank's Doing Business competitiveness ranking.

The ambition in Enterprise 2025 Renewed is that Ireland's ranking according to this measure be amongst the top 5 small countries. For this purpose, Ireland is compared against other comparable high income countries, as designated by the World Bank, that have a population within 20% of Ireland's population.

On this basis, Ireland ranks 6th behind New Zealand, Singapore, Denmark, Norway and Finland.

Niall Collins (Limerick County, Fianna Fail)
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410. To ask the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation the reason Enterprise 2025 and the Action Plan for Jobs 2018 are using two different competitiveness ranking targets to be achieved by 2020; if the Enterprise 2025 target takes precedence as reaffirmed in Enterprise 2025 Renewed; and her views on whether the World Bank’s ease of doing business ranking of 190 countries is a better gauge than the IMD competitiveness scorecard ranking in view of the fact this only covers 61 countries globally. [12734/18]

Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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Competitiveness is challenging to measure. The National Competitiveness Council uses three main competitiveness benchmarks - those of the World Bank, IMD and the World Economic Forum (WEF) which differ in terms of methodology, data sources and country coverage. These indices are not perfect measures of competitiveness and can be somewhat subjective in nature. It is also important to bear in mind that Ireland’s ranking can change based on other countries performance or methodology changes rather than any improvement or decline in our own absolute competitiveness.

Enterprise 2025 Renewed has used the World Bank ease of doing business ranking as it measures the competitiveness of the enterprise environment, which in turn points us to where an enterprise policy focus may be required.

The IMD’s World Competitiveness Yearbook used in the Action Plan for Jobs, 2018, offers a broader definition of competitiveness in advanced economies. It spans measures for how an economy manages its resources to increase the prosperity of its population (where the State plays a key role) and the wealth creation process.

My Department does not rely on any one benchmark in its ongoing analysis. While the measures are different in scope, coverage and methodology they are complementary and enable my Department to monitor competitiveness on the basis of a range of measures and input to the policy making process.