Ireland Improves Performance in European Digitisation Index
The Government has welcomed the news from the European Commission that Ireland has improved its performance in the 2019 EU Digital Economy and Society Index (DESI) compared to 2018. Our performance is ahead of the European average in four of the five indicators. Ireland improved its overall ranking by one place, moving from 8th to 7th place in Europe in the Index.
The methodology of the DESI 2019 has been changed from previous years to take account of the latest technological developments. Ireland has made continuous improvements in these rankings since 2014.
Pat Breen, TD, Minister for Trade, Employment, Business, EU Digital Single Market and Data Protection welcomed Ireland’s continued improvement across all five indicators in the Index: “The DESI Report for 2019 shows that the actions this Government has taken to progress the digital transformation agenda in Ireland are bearing fruit. Ireland either improved or maintained its performance in 33 indicators within the Index and was above the EU average in 28 of these. This is a hugely impressive achievement and a clear indication that Ireland well prepared to embrace the opportunities that the Digital Age is already bringing.”
Ireland is top of the DESI rankings in the “Integration of Digital Technology by Businesses” category and in three sub-categories: eCommerce Turnover; SMEs Online Cross-border and Open Data. Ireland’s impressive performance also reflects improvements in the use of Video on Demand services and availability of Digital Public Services for businesses. In a European context, the report reveals that Ireland is significantly ahead of the EU average in the areas of 5G Readiness, Video on Demand, eCommerce Turnover and Open Data.
Ireland’s position in the Index makes us a prominent member of the EU Digital 9+ (D9+) front-runner countries. The D9+ group is a loose affiliation of like-minded Member States on Digital Single Market issues, comprising the top-ranked European countries in the DESI.
Minister Breen concluded: “While we should of course be very pleased with Ireland’s digital performance, we operate in a fast and dynamic environment. We must continue to press ahead with adopting and implementing the necessary structural changes to remain at the forefront of the digital transformation agenda and avoid the risk of stalling against our competitors.”
