OECD Economic Surveys: Ireland 2025

Maintaining stable growth and high living standards, in a context of a rapidly increasing population and rising capacity constraints, requires policies to address challenges due to population ageing, ensure adequate supply of affordable housing and combat climate change.

Despite several major shocks, Ireland has raised its economic performance and standard of living over recent decades. The stable institutional framework and supportive business environment, combined with a well-educated population, have attracted foreign investment and innovative businesses. Thanks to a highly redistributive tax and transfer system, inequalities in disposable income remain limited.

However, Ireland faces a number of challenges. High concentration of value-added in a few multinational-dominated sectors creates risks to growth and tax revenues. Delays in critical infrastructure delivery, particularly in housing and energy, could lower well-being and decrease competitiveness. Most notably, high housing costs could lower the attractiveness of Ireland for foreign direct investment and talent. Population ageing will add to long-term fiscal sustainability pressures, with the old-age dependency ratio set to double by 2050. Meeting the ambitious climate targets of reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 51% from 2018 levels by 2030 and achieving climate neutrality by 2050 will also require substantial reforms and investment.

The National Development Plan 2021-30 has a total allocation of EUR 165 billion to support housing, digital and green transformations, infrastructure and healthcare, and aims to keep public investment around 5% of GNI*. These investments are critical for future competitiveness and long-term growth but face capacity constraints, especially in terms of labour and skills. Effective prioritisation and sequencing across sectors and type of projects is needed to balance potential short-run inflationary impacts and the long-run benefits of enhanced public investment. An efficient planning and permitting system, by ensuring an effective implementation of the new Planning and Development Act, will also be crucial to meet the ambitious housing and climate targets.

Economic activity is set to be robust in 2025-26 as inflationary pressures and financial conditions ease and volatility from the multinational sector subsides, but downside risks to growth have become more prominent. Fiscal restraint is called for in the near term, while enhancing the fiscal framework, increasing spending efficiency and improving the medium-term resilience of tax revenues are key to ensuring long-run fiscal sustainability.

Domestic demand has been more resilient than the volatile external sector. Despite GDP volatility, driven by some multinational-dominated sectors, modified domestic demand, which excludes multinationals’ transactions that do not have a big impact on the domestic economy, has been more resilient, thanks to strong labour market performance (Figure 1). The employment rate reached a record high in the third quarter of 2024, and the unemployment rate remains near historical lows.

Real GDP and modified domestic demand are set to grow robustly in 2025-26 (Table 1). The subsiding of volatility from the multinational sector, a tight labour market, and easing inflationary pressures and financial conditions will support growth. Headline consumer price inflation is projected to be around 1.8% in 2025-26.

Downside risks to growth have risen. Geopolitical fragmentation or weaker global demand could weigh on exports. Tighter capacity constraints or renewed pressures on energy and food prices may keep inflation higher than foreseen, dampening consumption. On the upside, a faster drop in services prices would ease SME operational costs and boost consumer confidence.

The financial system appears resilient, but risks should be monitored closely. The high share of non-bank lending to small and medium-sized enterprises and the commercial real estate market creates vulnerabilities. Ireland is at the forefront of developing a macroprudential framework for non-banks. Close monitoring of non-banks should be continued with a view to recalibrate macroprudential measures, as needed.

Fiscal restraint is needed. The short-term fiscal situation is robust, supported by strong tax revenues. However, around half of the cost-of-living measures in the Budget 2025 package are untargeted, and the 5% domestic net spending rule will be breached again. In a context of capacity constraints, pro-cyclical expansion in current expenditures, which tend to exacerbate price pressures, should be avoided.

Maintaining short-term fiscal prudence would also help build buffers to increase resilience to shocks and improve long-run fiscal sustainability. Public debt at 43.2% of GDP in 2023 is low, but it is 76% of GNI* and gross debt per capita remains relatively elevated. Population ageing and the digital and green transitions will increase future costs. Hence, fiscal and structural reforms are needed to ensure long-run debt sustainability.

The plans to shift from a hospital-based healthcare system to one that integrates primary, community and long-term care will improve spending efficiency. This requires a transition towards more decentralised service delivery, which is progressing through the creation of Health Regions. These should be swiftly complemented with a transparent funding model based on regional needs and improved data availability and governance.

There is room to improve the medium-term resilience of revenues, given the concentration of corporation and income tax returns arising from a small number of large multi-nationals. Around one-third of income earners do not pay personal income taxes or the universal social charge. While the standard value-added tax rate is high, reduced rates decrease its yield.

The domestic net spending rule and the establishment of two savings funds have strengthened the fiscal framework. However, there is room to improve medium-term fiscal planning. Recurrent breaches of the domestic spending rule are lowering its credibility. Introducing more binding and credible guardrails to complement the new EU fiscal rules, including stronger political anchoring, would improve its effectiveness.

Addressing repeated, sizeable spending overruns, especially in the health sector, can help create room for capital investment in infrastructure. Ireland conducts annual spending reviews on specific areas but should also use comprehensive expenditure reviews. Linking the results to the medium-term expenditure framework and the annual budget process is crucial to deliver spending efficiency gains.

Further reducing labour and skills shortages, lowering legal costs and further easing administrative burdens on businesses, such as licensing and permitting requirements, are key to preserving Ireland’s cost competitiveness.

Labour shortages can limit housing and green investment and hamper SME activities. While upskilling and reskilling systems are well-established, participation could be improved further, especially for low-skilled, unemployed, and inactive adults.

The recent increases in female employment are welcome, but more is needed. Despite marked increases in childcare subsidies, the high cost of childcare creates disincentives for some groups of women to enter work or work more hours. Making childcare subsidies more means-tested would improve equal access.

Ireland is introducing various labour market and pension reforms, which will improve working conditions. However, there are concerns that the simultaneous implementation of the reforms may entail risks to cost competitiveness. The cumulated impact on business sustainability, especially on smaller businesses in labour-intensive sectors, should be closely monitored.

Lengthy court proceedings, partly due to pandemic-related backlogs, and high legal costs, especially of litigation, can also reduce competitiveness. Competition-enhancing reforms easing the setting up of multi-disciplinary practices can boost the legal system’s efficiency and help reduce legal costs. The efficiency of case management and planning in the court system should also be improved by further integrating information and data systems.

While Ireland has well-developed mitigation and adaptation frameworks, a shift from planning to implementation, focusing on delivery of concrete actions, is needed. Pricing emissions more uniformly across sectors and phasing out fossil fuel subsidies can help meet emission targets.

Ireland is not on track to meet its 2030 greenhouse gas emission targets and needs to make faster progress in putting emissions on a sustained downward trend. The legislation of ambitious targets (Figure 2) and the establishment of carbon budgets and sectoral emission ceilings should be followed through with speedier implementation of concrete actions.

A faster permitting and planning system will be key to meeting climate targets. Electricity demand is rising, reflecting inter alia population growth, data centres, electrification of heating and transport, requiring an acceleration of renewables. Faster permitting and grid connection processes, and upgrades in transmission, distribution and storage infrastructure are needed.

Pricing of emissions should be made more uniform across sectors and fuels. The carbon tax, currently at EUR 63.5 per tonne of CO₂ emissions and set to gradually reach EUR 100 by 2030, will support price signals. However, carbon pricing is relatively low in agriculture and buildings, where emissions are high. Furthermore, fossil fuel subsidies (EUR 3.5 billion in 2022), of which diesel for transport use accounted for the largest share, undermine the environmental impact of the carbon tax.

Lack of a standardised approach to monitoring adaptation makes the assessment of implementation challenging. Establishing a set of national adaptation key performance indicators and timelines to monitor implementation can also help improve consistency across sectoral adaptation policies.

Addressing housing affordability challenges requires reforms to strengthen the supply response to rising demand. Policies to increase housing density, improve land use and planning, and boost productivity and lower costs in the construction sector are needed for a well-functioning housing market. Ensuring adequate supply and funding for social housing would ameliorate living conditions for the most vulnerable, and help combat homelessness.

The government has prioritised housing policies with the 2021 Housing for All Plan. In a context of strong demand due to population growth, past under-investment and constrained supply (Figure 3) have led to affordability and viability challenges. Recent policies have contributed to an increase in housing completions, but supply-demand mismatches persist. Ongoing policies to improve productivity in the construction sector and address labour shortages should be continued. It will also be important to improve the data framework and digitisation of planning processes to complement the new Planning and Development Act.

An accurate assessment of housing needs is crucial for policy design. The recent increase in annual housing targets from 33 000 to around 50 000 is welcome, but does not fully reflect total housing needs arising from the legacy of past under-investment. Some local authorities use the results of the tool, which translates national targets to local ones, as ceilings rather than as minima. This can lower supply, especially in some urban areas, as planning permissions do not always translate into home completions.

The temporary tax measures introduced in recent budgets to address near-term affordability challenges should be phased out. The re-introduction of mortgage interest relief and extension of tax reliefs and credits for landlords and tenants are not targeted and can be regressive.

Higher tax rates on residential dwellings and land can support tax neutrality, by reducing homeownership bias, while strengthening incentives to develop land and build. The residential zoned land tax, set to replace the 7% vacant site levy, is broader in scope and administratively less costly. However, the annual rate of 3% should be raised. Furthermore, despite recent reforms, local property taxes remain low.

More sustainable land development is key to increasing housing supply, while maximising the use of existing infrastructure and preventing urban sprawl. Existing national land-use data, which are scattered across various sources and lack standardisation, and the absence of a land-use classification system lower the effectiveness of planning processes. The planned development of land-use maps should be prioritised.

High construction costs can be a barrier to the cost-effective implementation of planned spending increases on housing, and delivery of compact urban growth. They also make it difficult to deliver housing units at sale or rental prices consistent with costs of production and household incomes. Regularly assessing the drivers of relatively high Irish construction costs, easing regulations with respect to size and specification of units and increasing adoption of standardisation should be prioritised.

High rents and low rental supply have increased the need for public support to households and to combat homelessness. Reducing the complexity of rental regulation and ensuring greater certainty for investors can help boost supply. The provision of social housing is expanding but has not kept up with needs. The system is characterised by increasing costs and dependence on housing allowances and the private sector rental market. The current social housing funding model should be reassessed to allow a switch of some social transfers to the construction of social or affordable housing to ensure the long-term financial sustainability of the system. A higher supply of social housing, combined with streamlined allocation processes, can also help combat homelessness, which has risen over recent years.