A report which measures how successful countries are at attracting foreign investment shows that Ireland dropped to 14th of 30 countries last year, compared with 10th in 2006.
But the investment performance index, compiled by National Irish Bank and consulting group OCO, showed that Ireland was one of the leading developed economies, falling below only Australia. The US was 21st and the UK 25th.
The index is adjusted to take account of the size of each country's economy. India took the top spot, followed by Poland and Thailand.
The report found that around 12% of the new jobs brought to Ireland last year involved some significant element of research and development.
NIB economist Ronnie O'Toole said Ireland was outperforming almost all of the big developed economies. But he said this was not because of a high number of new jobs, but because firms were making much bigger investments for every job they created, indicating that the jobs were high-quality.
