Country ranked first in Europe for business-friendly environment

IRELAND is one of the most business-friendly locations in the world — one of the reasons it came third in a list of the world’s freest economies.

The annual index of economic freedom, released by The Heritage Foundation and The Wall Street Journal, found Ireland’s economy is 82.4% free — which is a slightly lower score than last year.

Ireland is ranked first out of 41 countries in the European region, with an overall score much higher than the regional average.