LONDON (Bloomberg) — Willis Group Holdings Inc., the insurance broker moving to Ireland from Bermuda, said taxes and a lack of stimulus has made business in its new home "a drag".

"Ireland is getting worse," chief executive officer Joseph Plumeri said yesterday on a conference call.

Ireland's finances are deteriorating as the economic slump increases welfare spending and the government pumps billions of euros into the banking system, Ireland's finance minister Brian Lenihan has said. Willis, the world's third-biggest broker, said on September 21 it expected to pay less tax by moving its legal home to Ireland.

"They're the only country in the world that had an economic impact and didn't have a stimulus package because they didn't have enough money," Plumeri told analysts while discussing third-quarter results. "So there's higher taxes that are being pushed on people in businesses."

He called the Ireland and the UK "a drag" on revenue, while businesses in Spain, Italy, Denmark and Asia performed better.

Ireland's cost of borrowing jumped earlier this year and it lost the top credit rating at Moody's Investors Service and Standard & Poor's because of its rising debt. Willis, which traces its origins to a London company founded in 1828, has its main executive headquarters in that city.

Willis said on Monday evening that profit in the three months ended September 30 more than doubled to $79 million on increased revenue from its acquisition of Hilb Rogal & Hobbs Co. Willis reported three percent growth in commissions and fees on business outside North America, excluding the effect of foreign exchange and acquisitions, according to a statement yesterday.

Willis fell 45 cents, or 1.7 percent, to $26.07 in New York Stock Exchange Composite trading after falling as much as 5.5 percent earlier.