Ireland

The island of Ireland is situated in Northwest Europe and is approximately 20 kilometres from Great Britain at its nearest point. The total area of the island is 84,421 square kilometres of which Northern Ireland (politically part of the United Kingdom) comprises 14,139 square kilometres, with the remainder constituting an independent parliamentary democracy called Ireland. Ireland has a population of approximately 5 million people, with the greatest concentration being on the east and south coasts. The capital of Ireland is Dublin. Its official languages are Irish and English. Business is conducted in English, and the currency is the euro (EUR).

Ireland is a parliamentary democracy. The basic law of the country is contained in the Constitution of Ireland, which was adopted in 1937 and amended on a number of occasions since then by public referenda. The Constitution sets out the fundamental rights of the citizen, the form of government, and the powers of the government. It also defines the system of courts and regulates the appointment of the judiciary. The national parliament consists of the president and two houses: a house of representatives (Dáil Éireann) and a senate (Seanad Éireann). The President is Head of State only and does not have executive functions. Executive power is exercised by the Prime Minister (Taoiseach) and the cabinet, while the power of making laws rests with parliament.

The political environment in Ireland is stable and has been dominated by parties of a centre or a centre right persuasion over recent decades. Ireland is a member of the European Union (EU) and is also a member of most major international organisations but retains a neutral stance on military matters.

Government economic policies are directed towards the creation of a stable economic environment that is supportive of the needs of business.

Over the last four decades, Ireland has continually invested and reinvested to meet the requirements of a growing and sophisticated international business sector. Today, Ireland is one of the most favoured locations for investment in Europe. Ireland was ranked 1st in the World for Economic Performance in 2023,  2nd in the World for Overall Competitiveness in 2023 and 3rd in the World for Government Efficiency in 2023 according to “IMD World Competitiveness Yearbook 2023”. Ireland was also ranked 2nd in the World and in the EU for the highest GDP per capita for 2023 according to “Visual Capitalist”. These rankings show that companies are looking at structural factors, such as a favourable business environment, transportation/infrastructure, talent/skills availability, and cluster/sector strengths when deciding where to invest rather than cyclical phenomena such as short-term economic growth prospects or fiscal deficits. Ireland as a good location to do business is further displayed by the number of people directly employed by foreign direct investment (FDI) businesses in Ireland, which reached 300,583 persons in 2023. Ireland has welcomed investment from a wide range of business sectors including electronics and engineering, pharmaceuticals and healthcare products, technology and computer software, financial services and a range of internationally traded services. In 2023 Ireland won 248 new investments (132 or 54% of these being investments located outside the major urban centres), which was up 2.5% from 2022 and led to the creation of almost 19,000 jobs. Ireland also has one of Europe’s most comprehensive legal frameworks for the protection of intellectual property (IP) rights.

The continued success of Ireland as an investment location has been founded on the positive approach of successive Irish governments to the development of businesses. This approach has ensured a favourable tax environment; competitive operating costs; a productive, well-educated, and flexible workforce and a well-developed infrastructure with world-class support services.

Furthermore, the Irish government has started to focus more on 'green' thinking and a more sustainable environment. The Climate Action Plan 2024 (launched on 20 December 2023) is the third annual update to Ireland’s Climate Action Plan 2019. This plan is the first to be prepared under the Climate Action and Low Carbon Development (Amendment) Act 2021, following the introduction in 2022, of economy-wide carbon budgets and sectoral emissions ceilings. The plan implements the carbon budgets and sectoral emissions ceilings and sets a roadmap for taking decisive action to halve Ireland’s emissions by 2030 and reach net zero no later than 2050, as committed to by Ireland in the Programme for Government.

The Climate Action Plan 2023 outlines how there will be more of a drive to realise Ireland’s offshore renewable energy potential, an aim to facilitate large scale development of renewables to allow Ireland to reduce of emissions by 75% by 2030 and increase the energy efficiency of buildings and policies to deliver zero-emission new builds and continue to ramp up the retrofitting homes programme. With this continued focus on producing a more sustainable and greener economy in Ireland, it is likely there will be more tax initiatives announced in the near future.

The Irish government’s National Economic Plan for 2022 onwards aims to support employment and is guided by many parameters, including 'maintaining a supportive environment for foreign direct investment', 'ensuring that the employment opportunities created are sustainable and part of our national move to a low-carbon future,' and 'innovation in workplaces through digitalisation and remote and flexible work practices'.

PwC is the largest professional services firm in Ireland. We have over 3,000 professionals in seven locations, which are Dublin, Cork, Galway, Kilkenny, Limerick, Waterford, and Wexford.

PwC Ireland provides assurance, tax, and advisory services across all industries. As Ireland's leading tax practice, with approximately 600 tax professionals around the country, PwC Ireland offers a broad range of tax services, including business taxation, transactions, transfer pricing, international tax structuring, value-added tax (VAT), customs, tax management, tax compliance, research and development (R&D) tax relief, personal tax advisory and compliance, human resource tax services, tax technology and transformation services, tax risk and controversy services and tax policy services.