Housing costs, the planning process, and the price of gas were the biggest downsides to doing business in Ireland according to the latest survey of multinationals by the IDA.
The 2024 client survey scored twenty different factors out of ten on Ireland’s competitiveness with the corporate tax regime again rating highest at 7.44.
However, housing for staff continues to be a major problem for companies doing business in Ireland, with satisfaction falling since the last survey in 2022.
Housing costs and availability both scored at 2.74 out of ten followed by the cost of gas supplies at 2.91.
Ireland’s planning process – which many companies consider slow and fraught with legal risk – scored at just 3.26 out of ten in the survey.
Other factors that had a ranking of below five out of ten were apprenticeships, power supply costs, and renewable power options.
On the plus side, Ireland’s famously generous corporate tax regime and the third level education system both scored well above seven, at 7.44 and 7.38, respectively.
Companies also listed broadband availability, labour force flexibility and air services availability as strong positives of doing business here.
An overview of the survey said: “The ranking of operational factors remains largely consistent to 2022. Satisfaction remains lowest for both housing costs and availability.
“There have been significant improvements in the evaluation of the availability and cost of broadband.”
Overall, companies were positive about Ireland with 54 percent saying growth prospects were “excellent” or “very good”.
The document was released by the IDA without issue under Freedom of Information laws for the first time.
The IDA had previously gone to the High Court to block release of a previous similar client survey