The European Commission (EC), the executive arm of the European Union (EU), said on Friday that Ireland belongs to a cluster of high-performing EU countries when it comes to digitization of the economy and society.

In the 2017 Digital Economy and Society Index (DESI), published on Friday by the EC, Ireland was placed 8th among the EU 28 member states, with a particularly strong performance in the integration of digital technology and in the rollout of e-government services.

The DESI is a composite index that summarizes relevant indicators on Europe's digital performance and tracks the evolution of EU member states in digital competitiveness.

The EC used the index to measure digital progress across the categories of connectivity, human capital, use of the internet, integration of digital technologies and digital public services.

In Ireland, 94 percent of households in the country have access to 4G connectivity, a new indicator in the DESI. The level of subscriptions to fast broadband in Ireland at 60 percent is well ahead of the EU average of 37 percent.

Under the government's National Broadband Plan, published in 2012, every premises in Ireland will have access to a high speed broadband of a minimum of 30 megabits per second download speed and 6 megabits per second upload speed.

Xinhua: Source