The company ranking model measures the quality or attractiveness of the business environment in the 82 countries covered by the Economist Intelligence Unit`s country forecast reports. It examines ten different criteria or categories that include the policy environment, macroeconomic environment, market opportunities, free enterprise and competition policies, foreign investment policies, foreign trade and exchange controls, taxation, financing, labor market and infrastructure. Businesses have been attracted to business in Ireland for a number of reasons, including: access to the EU`s single market, an educated and English-speaking workforce, a low corporate tax rate, a common law legal system and a strong regulatory system. The Constitution is the fundamental legal document that defines how Ireland is to be governed. It appoints the president as head of state, branches of government, courts, and also determines how these institutions are to be run. Trade unions operate freely and collective bargaining is legal and unrestricted. Police have been criticised for breaking up a workers` protest at a closed department store in Dublin in April 2021. The Political Freedom Indicator provides an annual assessment of the state of freedom in a country as experienced by individuals. The survey measures freedom in two broad categories: political rights and civil liberties. The evaluation process is based on a checklist of 10 questions on political rights (electoral process, political pluralism and participation, functioning of government) and 15 questions on civil liberties (on freedom of expression, belief, rights of association and organisation, rule of law, personal autonomy and individual rights).
Each of these questions is scored on a scale of 0 to 4, with a score of 0 representing the smallest degree and 4 representing the greatest degree of rights or freedoms present. The overall score assigned to the Political Rights and Civil Liberties Checklist determines the assessment of political rights and civil liberties. Each score from 1 to 7, where 1 is the highest level of freedom and 7 is the lowest, corresponds to a series of total points. D3. Is there academic freedom and is the education system free from extensive political indoctrination? 4/4 of people in Ireland have gained extensive social freedoms in recent years. In a referendum in 2015, voters extended the right to marriage to same-sex couples. In the same year, the Children and Family Relations Act extended adoption rights to same-sex and cohabiting couples, and the Gender Recognition Act allowed transgender people to obtain legal recognition without medical or governmental intervention and, for married transgender people, without divorce. In a referendum in 2018, voters abandoned a constitutional amendment that made nearly all abortions illegal, and health care providers began performing abortions in 2019. Corruption is illegal. It is a criminal offence for UK nationals or any person ordinarily resident in the UK to bribe a registered body or partnership registered in the UK anywhere in the world.
Links to the website of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs for general information on the political environment in the country. All citizens aged 18 and over have the right to vote. The members of the Seanad and the Dáil are elected at least every five years. Members of the Dáil are elected in constituencies of three to five members by a single transferable vote, a form of proportional representation. Of the 60 members of Seanad, 11 are appointed by the Prime Minister, 6 by Irish universities and 43 are elected to represent various economic, professional and cultural interests. Women have made significant political gains. Although women won only about one-eighth of the Dáil`s seats in the 1990s and made up about one-fifth of the Seanad, the country has twice elected female presidents, Mary Robinson in 1990 and Mary McAleese in 1997. However, as the proportion of women in the Oireachtas has remained about the same at the beginning of the 21st century, there have been calls for the introduction of quotas for women`s representation.
For general information on the country`s political and economic environment, please click on the link to the administrations` websites. Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael and Sinn Féin activists and volunteers have received information from voters in recent years posing as employees of electoral institutes. In June 2021, the DPC called on political parties to disclose such behavior. Each year, the Government prepares estimates of government revenue and expenditure. This is an overview of the operating costs of each department and the Department of State. The estimates are published before the annual budget. The Dáil and the relevant committees discuss the estimates in detail. Estimates are adopted by the Dáil and become legally effective by the Appropriation Act. The budget receives immediate legal force through the financial decisions of the Dáil on the evening of the budget speech. The finance law must be voted within 4 months of the budget.
The main political parties are Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael, Labour and Sinn Féin (the latter being mainly associated with Northern Irish politics, but has been integrated into Irish electoral politics, including the election of its leader Gerry Adams to the Dáil in 2011). Independents also have a significant presence in the Dáil. Fianna Fáil, a republican party, was founded by Eamon de Valera, who rejected the Anglo-Irish Treaty of 1921. The party boycotted the Dáil until 1927, but won the 1932 general election when de Valera became Prime Minister, a post he held with two interruptions until 1959, when he was elected President. Fine Gael is the party of Irish nationalists Arthur Griffith, Michael Collins and William Thomas Cosgrave, who supported the 1921 Treaty and created the Irish Free State. Cumann na nGaedheal, forerunner of Fine Gael, was in power from 1922 to 1932. After the Second World War, the government tended to switch between coalitions between Fine Gael and the Labour Party and Fianna Fáil. Fianna Fáil formed several independent (i.e. coalition-free) governments until it formed an alliance with the Progressive Democrats in the late 1980s. Later, government coalitions were led by both parties.
In the 1990s, all major parties accepted the position within the United Kingdom of Northern Ireland. The Irish constitution was amended to recognise this fact in 1999, when voters overwhelmingly supported the 1998 Belfast Agreement, a peace plan signed by the Irish and British governments and nationalist (Roman Catholic) and unionist (Protestant) political parties in Northern Ireland. Gender discrimination in the workplace is illegal, although there is still a significant gender pay gap. Ireland has a generally independent judiciary and a common law legal system. The Judicial Council, a body that promotes legal excellence, good conduct and judicial independence, began its work in 2020. It is almost always the government of the day that proposes new legislation. A minister submits a bill to the Dáil or Seanad for discussion and decision. A bill is a bill – once it is passed and signed by the president, it is called a law.
