Three Sectors –
Three Irelands?
Tech, tourism and life sciences through an ownership lens – using CSO data on employment and earnings by nationality of enterprise to reveal three distinct economic models operating side by side.
foreign-owned jobs
Irish-owned jobs
tech earnings
life sciences earnings
Ireland is often described as a small, open, export-led economy. True – but that headline hides three very different sector “models” operating side by side. Using CSO data on employment and earnings by nationality of enterprise ownership, three distinct Irelands become visible: An indigenous, SME-distributed economy; a foreign-anchored manufacturing platform; and a concentrated, high-wage global tech hub. Together, they explain a lot about Ireland’s strengths – and its vulnerabilities.
This CSO series classifies jobs and wages by the nationality of the enterprise owner – not the nationality of workers. “Foreign employment share” means jobs in Ireland within foreign-owned firms. An Irish software engineer employed by Google counts as “US-owned employment.” This is the right lens for understanding industrial structure; it should not be read as measuring the nationalities of workers themselves.
The three-sector framework
Tech: The earnings-ahead-of-jobs gap
Ireland’s Information & Communication sector (NACE J) is the most foreign-led major sector in the economy. In 2023, foreign-owned firms accounted for 68.4% of jobs but 79.4% of earnings – a gap of 11 percentage points. US-owned firms alone generated 59.1% of sectoral earnings.
Source: CSO – Proportion of Employments and Earnings by Irish and Foreign Owned Enterprises 2023
A relatively small number of global firms – predominantly US technology multinationals with significant European or EMEA operations anchored in Ireland – shape a very large share of national pay in this sector. The direct implication is that employment and earnings in NACE J are highly sensitive to decisions made in US corporate headquarters, not in Ireland.
Tourism: Where local enterprise is the economy
Accommodation & Food Services (NACE I) presents the sharpest possible contrast to tech. In 2023, Irish-owned enterprises accounted for 86.2% of jobs and 82.8% of earnings in this sector. Foreign ownership exists, but it is modest and spread across multiple ownership blocs rather than concentrated in a few large players.
Source: CSO – Proportion of Employments and Earnings by Irish and Foreign Owned Enterprises 2023 (Tables 2a and 2b).
The structure implied is not “a few giants” but thousands of local operators distributed across towns and regions. That makes tourism socially and economically important in a way that is fundamentally different from tech: Jobs and incomes here are embedded in place, and tied directly to domestic enterprise health.
Life sciences: The platform sector
Life sciences sits within the Industry & Construction (NACE B–F) aggregate in this CSO series. Pharmaceutical manufacturing is classified under NACE C21 (manufacture of basic pharmaceutical products and preparations) and medtech devices under NACE C32.50 (manufacture of medical and dental instruments and supplies). Both belong to Manufacturing (NACE C), which the CSO groups into the Industry & Construction (B–F) bucket in the tables used here. The sector occupies a middle position that is structurally distinct from both tech and tourism.
In 2023, the B–F aggregate showed: Irish-owned jobs 60.9%; foreign-owned jobs 39.1%; foreign-owned earnings 51.6%; and US-owned earnings 28.9%.
Source: CSO – Proportion of Employments and Earnings by Irish and Foreign Owned Enterprises 2023 (Tables 2a and 2b).
The CSO groups Industry (NACE B–E) and Construction (NACE F) together in this dataset. Pharmaceutical and medtech manufacturing sit inside this aggregate alongside other industry and construction activity, so the B–F figures are a proxy for the life sciences footprint rather than a clean pharma and medtech read. Isolating pharma or medtech specifically would require a more granular CSO breakdown at NACE 2-digit or 4-digit level.
The key insight is the “foreign anchors, Irish ecosystem” structure: Foreign firms provide less than half of employment but more than half of earnings – classic export-platform behaviour. The US block is the largest foreign anchor, but Ireland’s life sciences story is not solely about multinationals. A substantial domestic supplier and services ecosystem has developed around the large manufacturing plants, providing engineering, logistics, quality assurance, and professional services.
Foreign firms provide 39.1% of employment in Industry & Construction but 51.6% of earnings – a 12.5 percentage point wedge. This is marginally larger in absolute terms than tech’s 11.0 pp wedge (68.4% employment vs 79.4% earnings), and because it sits at a much lower foreign employment share, it implies a materially higher per-worker earnings premium for foreign-owned firms in this aggregate relative to the sector average.
The triangular view: What Ireland is
Put the three sectors together and a simple explanation of modern Irish economic structure emerges:
| Sector | NACE proxy | Ownership model | Employment character |
|---|---|---|---|
| Tech | J | Foreign-dominated, concentrated | High-wage engine |
| Tourism | I | Indigenous SME ecosystem | Distributed, regionally anchored |
| Life Sciences | B–F | Foreign anchors, Irish ecosystem | High-wage manufacturing platform |
Source: CSO – Proportion of Employments and Earnings by Irish and Foreign Owned Enterprises 2023 (Table 2a). All NACE B–S aggregate = 74.9%.
The open question is whether a small country succeeds by combining all three: Breadth through SMEs, depth through global anchors, and spillovers from one model into the next. The CSO data establishes the structure; whether that structure represents intentional strategy or contingent good fortune is a separate question.
Data sources
1. CSO – Proportion of Employments and Earnings by Irish and Foreign Owned Enterprises (EINO09)
cso.ie – EINO09
2. CSO Release Note – Proportion of Employments and Earnings 2023
cso.ie – PEEIFOE 2023
3. CSO Insights Series – Employment & Earnings Insights by Nationality of Enterprise Ownership (2023–2024)
cso.ie – EINO 2023–2024