A new report carried out by the European Commission shows that Ireland provides one of the friendliest environments for small businesses, with the country ranking among the top EU countries for giving honest entrepreneurs a second chance.

Ireland also came top in internationalisation, which looks at small and medium sized businesses importing and exporting from Ireland.

However the Small Business Act (SBA) Factsheet for 2015 also warned that access to finance was still a problem, despite improvements in recent years.

SMEs account for more than 99 per cent of enterprises in Ireland.

The report follows last week publication of the Global Entrepreneurship Development Index, in which Ireland’s global ranking rose from 17th to 12th, and the country now stands at seventh place among EU countries.

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