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Why Ireland for engineering investment

  • Ireland is the European location of choice for growing numbers of industrial engineering and technology companies in manufacturing, research and innovation

  • Principal industry sectors include automotive, aerospace, chemicals and advanced materials, automation and industrial technology

Source the skills you need to make your investment in Ireland a success

Connect with us

Source the skills you need to make your investment in Ireland a success

Connect with us
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Leading Industry Names

Ireland’s strong and vibrant engineering industry supports a broad range of companies across many industries. It includes names like Liebherr, Henkel, Element Six, Sulzer and Thermoking. The sector contributes more than €5.6 billion annually to Irish exports.

  • The top eight industrial automation companies
  • Four of the top 10 global engineering design firms
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A Proven Track Record

Ireland has been attracting engineering companies for more than 50 years. Recently, many have expanded their operations to serve EMEA markets. Ireland is also developing into a hub for cutting-edge fields such as IoT, Industry 5.0, Connected Autonomous Vehicles and more.

  • 250+ industrial technology and engineering companies in Ireland
  • 23,000+ people employed in the engineering sector
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Cutting-Edge Research

Ireland is an attractive location for researching new technologies, with 42% of engineering companies in Ireland already engaging in R&D activity. Ireland’s industry-led research centres specialise in areas like advanced materials, smart manufacturing and industrial automation.

  • Active R&D in emerging technologies
  • World-class research centres with strong industry focus
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Strong Talent Pipeline

Engineering companies locating or expanding in Ireland can avail of skilled talent including recent graduates and staff already working in the sector. Ireland’s EU membership provides unrestricted access to a labour pool of more than 240 million people.

  • 45,000 third-level students enrolled in STEM fields at any one time
  • Ireland ranks first in the world for productivity in industry (OECD)
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Ready for Disruption

As Industry 5.0 trends reshape engineering and manufacturing, IDA Ireland client companies are already working on R&D projects in augmented reality, industrial IoT, robotics and automation to enhance and optimise their manufacturing operations.

  • Government support for feasibility investigations to digitisation projects
  • 25% tax credit for all qualifying R&D activity

We selected Dublin because of its global business environment, talent, ability to support European languages, excellent long-term cost structure, and quality of life for employees. Dublin is a vibrant, multicultural and creative city. These qualities align well with our brand and culture and we think Dublin will be a great fit for us.

See similar companies in Ireland

Ingersoll
Siemens
GM
DuPont
Schneider
Valeo
Pilz
Henkel
Liebherr
Jaguar
Aptiv
ElementSix
United Technologies
Honeywell
GE
Airbus Helicopters
Abbott
Enernoc

Success Stories: Hear from leaders calling Ireland home

A proven path

See all Success Stories
Qualtrics
Takeda
Diligent
MeiraGTx
SAP
ServiceNow
Qualtrics Chooses Ireland for its Skills Base

Qualtrics Chooses Ireland for its Skills Base

Ultimately, what you want is a geography where you can build an office that has broad market coverage. For a company going into Europe, Ireland has the lowest cost to set up a business, with a broad pool of talent from across the EU

Varied functions in Ireland for Asia’s largest pharma company

Varied functions in Ireland for Asia’s largest pharma company

The Grange Castle site is growing from strength to strength thanks to a great team and strong investment in our people and technology. The treatment produced here will be delivered to patients within 72 hours of being released from Grange Castle which means we are closer to the patient than we have ever been and this brings a great sense of pride to our team.

Educated workforce enables rapid ramp-up for software company

Educated workforce enables rapid ramp-up for software company

In other jurisdictions that we looked at, they literally wanted you to land and sign the deal. Whereas the IDA were very powerful in thinking about the next wave of growth beyond the first 200 people, and what type of skills we might look for then. It genuinely does feel like a partnership rather than a one-and-done, and the after-sales experience is excellent too.

Gene therapy startup chooses Ireland for commercial-scale manufacturing

Gene therapy startup chooses Ireland for commercial-scale manufacturing

MeiraGTx’s Shannon facility is unique, not only in Ireland but globally, as it streamlines gene therapy development, testing and manufacturing capabilities together in-house. This significantly reduces the time to patients for advanced therapeutic products, with months or potentially years saved.” -

Strong growth over decades at software giant’s Irish operations

Strong growth over decades at software giant’s Irish operations

On the occasion of SAP celebrating 25 years in Ireland I would like to thank the Ireland Leadership team and all SAP Ireland employees in Dublin and Galway for their expertise, flexibility, motivation and exceptional customer focus. Over the past 25 years we have helped guide customers and partners on their transformation journeys and as SAP celebrates its 50th anniversary globally we look forward to helping even more customers run better and improving people’s lives.

Company makes Ireland one of its largest international sites

Company makes Ireland one of its largest international sites

We think that Ireland has really become the gateway to the European Union. There’s so many things that US companies gain from their relationship with Ireland.

Find your European home

Find your European home