The services sector in Ireland has grown rapidly over the past two decades and is now a significant part of the Irish The sector accounts for over two-thirds of Ireland’s workforce and 60% of value added.
The services sector in Ireland accounts for 43% of exports, making Ireland the 10th highest exporter of services in the world.
The increasing shift towards services as the driver of economic growth and continued prosperity is expected to continue. Much of the growth in services in recent years has been due to both an increasing number of expanding Irish services companies across a wide range of sectors and the intensifying activities of foreign-owned companies operating in Ireland. This continued growth is clear evidence that a wide range of services can successfullybe exported, and that Ireland and Irish companies have both the capabilities and the experience needed to succeed in services exports.
Over the next ten years, services – and in particular internationally traded services – will be the key driver of Ireland’s economic success and job creation.
Services are diverse
The services sector currently employs two-thirds of the workforce in Ireland, engaged in a very wide range of activities, including, for example
Personal services, such as healthcare services
Professional services, such as design services
Business to business services, such as financial services
Business to consumer services, such as travel services
Services that are necessarily provided face-to-face with the customer, such as catering
Services that are provided at a distance from the consumer, such as television programme production.
Service activities within manufacturing companies have also risen in importance. In the manufacturing sector, 35% of workers are estimated to be engaged in service-type activities, such as order fulfilment, customer satisfaction surveying, help desk support, and logistics. These services enable manufacturing companies to
- Deliver a complete customer solution
- Differentiate themselves from their competitors
- Add value to their offerings
- Lower their cost base
- Reach markets that previously would have been inaccessible to them
Recognising the critical importance of services, Enterprise Ireland has
- Established a specialised unit dealing with Internationally Traded Services
- Allocated additional resources to the services sector and to service activities
- Conducted intensive research into the exporting opportunities for Irish services companies
- Developed comprehensive action plans to realise the potential of the sector
Across the ANZ region, a number of Irish service based companies have proven very successful across a diverse range of market sectors ranging from complex engineering services to the subsea industry (Marine Computation Services) to payments solution providers to financial services sector (Fintrax & Monex).
For further details of all Irish companies providing services to the ANZ Internationally Traded Services sector, please click here.