Doing business in Ireland: Not quite the best small country for businesses

Enda Kenny made big claims five years ago. Yet businesses, and particularly SMEs, are facing the same old problems, writes Peter O’Dwyer

In January 2011, Enda Kenny claimed Ireland could be the best small country in which to do business within five years.

The Fine Gael leader, then in opposition, set out his vision for an Ireland that by the centenary of the Easter Rising would see the country’s business environment change utterly and take its place among the world’s finest.