How big is Irish manufacturing?

EUR 166,390m of gross value added in 2024 at current prices (CSO Annual National Accounts), about 31% of total gross value added by our calculation. The share is inflated by foreign-owned multinationals in pharmaceuticals and electronics.

How many manufacturing enterprises are there in Ireland?

19,416 active manufacturing enterprises in 2023, employing 272,438 persons (CSO, Business in Ireland 2023).

What does industrial electricity cost in Ireland?

EUR 25.52 per 100 kWh for non-household consumers using 500-2,000 MWh a year in the second half of 2025, the highest in the EU; the EU average was EUR 18.37 (Eurostat).

How many Irish firms use AI?

20.2% of enterprises used at least one AI technology in 2025, up from 15.2% in 2024; only 3.3% used it in production processes (CSO).

Home / Western European manufacturing in 2026: the data

Manufacturing data · Ireland · CSO and Eurostat, read 24 September 2026

Ireland: the manufacturing data behind a 2026 plant decision

Two manufacturing economies in one: pharmaceuticals, medical devices and electronics growing fast, and a traditional sector that shrank at the end of 2025. Add the highest industrial electricity price in the EU. What the CSO says about an Irish plant in 2026, with the release behind every figure.

In shortIrish manufacturing produced EUR 166.4bn of gross value added in 2024 at current prices (CSO, Annual National Accounts), about 31% of the economy’s total by our calculation, a share inflated by foreign-owned multinationals. In the last quarter of 2025, production in the modern sector was 9.5% above a year earlier while the traditional sector fell 3.6% (CSO). Ireland had 19,416 active manufacturing enterprises employing 272,438 people in 2023. Industrial electricity cost EUR 0.2552 per kWh for mid-sized consumers in the second half of 2025, the highest in the EU (Eurostat), and an hour of labour in industry EUR 40.24 in 2026 Q1 (CSO).

Value added, enterprises and employment

Ireland manufacturing: value added, enterprises and employment
Indicator	Earlier	Latest
Manufacturing gross value added, NACE 10-33 (EUR m, current prices)	156,393 (2023)	166,390 (2024)
Share of total gross value added at basic prices (our calculation)	·	31.2% (2024)
Active manufacturing enterprises	18,973 (2022)	19,416 (2023)
Persons employed in manufacturing	264,220 (2022)	272,438 (2023)
Employment in industry (B-E), change on a year earlier	·	+22,000, +6.6% (2025 Q4)

CSO Annual National Accounts 2024, gross value added by activity, table 5.4 (8 July 2025); total gross value added at basic prices EUR 533,074m. CSO Business in Ireland 2023 (15 December 2025). CSO Labour Force Survey 2025 Q4: the rise in industry employment was driven by basic pharmaceutical products (division 21, +11,900) and other manufacturing including medical devices (division 32, +8,100).

Irish manufacturing statistics measure two different things at once. In 2025 the multinational-dominated sectors grew 14.5% and accounted for 50.4% of the economy’s value added, while the domestic sectors grew 2.2%; the CSO’s deglobalised measure, GNI*, grew 4.7% (CSO, Annual National Accounts 2025, 2 July 2026). The CSO does not split manufacturing value added between the two, so the 31% share says more about pharmaceutical and electronics multinationals than about a typical Irish plant.

Production: modern and traditional

Industrial production, October-December 2025 vs the same period of 2024
Indicator	Change
Production, all manufacturing industries	+7.2%
Production, modern sector	+9.5%
Production, traditional sector	-3.6%
Turnover, all manufacturing industries	-10.0%

CSO Industrial Production and Turnover, December 2025 (12 February 2026). Three-month comparisons; the release gives no full-year figure. The modern sector is the CSO’s grouping of high-technology activities dominated by multinationals, such as pharmaceuticals and electronics; the traditional sector covers the other manufacturing industries.

Exports of medical and pharmaceutical products reached EUR 138.6bn in 2025, up 39.0%, and goods exports to the United States rose 52.0% to EUR 111.7bn, within record total goods exports of EUR 260.3bn (CSO, Goods Exports and Imports, December 2025). A plant in the traditional sector lives in a different economy from these headlines: its production fell while the national figures rose.

Labour cost, vacancies and energy

Average hourly total labour cost in industry (B-E) was EUR 40.24 in 2026 Q1, against EUR 38.78 across all sectors (CSO, Earnings and Labour Costs, 25 August 2026). For manufacturing alone, Eurostat’s annual estimate for 2025 is about EUR 42.4 an hour (published by Destatis). The job vacancy rate in industry was 0.8% at the end of 2026 Q2, against 1.3% for the economy (CSO, preliminary).

Non-household consumers in the 500-2,000 MWh band paid EUR 25.52 per 100 kWh in the second half of 2025, the highest price in the EU, against an EU average of EUR 18.37 (Eurostat news, 8 May 2026). Energy therefore carries a larger share of the value of lost time in Ireland than almost anywhere else in Europe.

AI adoption and support

20.2% of Irish enterprises used at least one AI technology in 2025, against 15.2% in 2024; 57.7% of large enterprises did, but only 3.3% of enterprises used AI in production processes (CSO, Information Society Statistics, Enterprises 2025). The CSO publishes no manufacturing-only figure. Enterprise Ireland’s Operational Excellence offer supports investment in new production equipment, process innovation and training from a minimum expenditure of EUR 100,000.

What this means for a plant here

Read the national figures with care. If your plant is in food, metals or another traditional activity, the relevant trend is the 3.6% fall, not the 9.5% rise.
Meter energy per part. At EUR 0.2552 per kWh, a 150 kW line left running idle for an hour costs about EUR 38 of electricity; energy is a real share of every lost hour here.
Know what a point is worth. On a reference two-shift line, one OEE point is worth EUR 12,268 a year at Irish costs.
The AI gap is on the shop floor. One enterprise in five uses AI, but only 3.3% use it in production: the data layer (why machines stop, how fast they run) usually comes first.

DisclosureThis site is published by TEEPTRAK SAS, which sells production-monitoring and OEE software (450+ factories equipped in 30+ countries; offices in Paris, Chicago, Shenzhen and Bucharest). Read the figures above as data and this line as the interest behind them. For a Irish plant the honest order is: agree which losses you are trying to move, log stop causes by hand for a month, then decide whether a dedicated system, an MES module you already pay for, or a local integrator is the cheapest way to keep doing it.

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Questions

How big is Irish manufacturing?: EUR 166,390m of gross value added in 2024 at current prices (CSO Annual National Accounts), about 31% of total gross value added by our calculation. The share is inflated by foreign-owned multinationals in pharmaceuticals and electronics.
How many manufacturing enterprises are there in Ireland?: 19,416 active manufacturing enterprises in 2023, employing 272,438 persons (CSO, Business in Ireland 2023).
Is Irish manufacturing growing?: Unevenly. In the last quarter of 2025, production in the modern sector was 9.5% above a year earlier, while the traditional sector fell 3.6%; total manufacturing production rose 7.2% while turnover fell 10.0% (CSO).
What does industrial electricity cost in Ireland?: EUR 25.52 per 100 kWh for non-household consumers using 500-2,000 MWh a year in the second half of 2025, the highest in the EU; the EU average was EUR 18.37 (Eurostat).
How many Irish firms use AI?: 20.2% of enterprises used at least one AI technology in 2025, up from 15.2% in 2024; only 3.3% used it in production processes (CSO).

Sources

Published by TEEPTRAK SAS, which makes production-monitoring and OEE software. Every figure is sourced on the page; shares and costs marked as ours are calculations on the published figures. Statistics are revised: check the official release before you budget or commit.