This is a best prospect industry sector for this country. Includes a market overview and trade data.

Overview

Ireland’s $14 billion digital economy accounts for 6% of GDP.  About 100,000 digital companies operate in the Irish market including major U.S. firms such as Apple, Cisco, Facebook, Google, HPE, IBM, Intel, Microsoft, Facebook and Twitter.  There is also a very strong SME community of digital technology companies.  The Irish ICT market is in a strong growth phase at present with demand in this $4.8 billion market growing by over 5% annually in recent years.  Ireland is an active member of the EU Digital-Nine – a group of countries that seek to be front runners in the European Digital Single Market.

Leading Sub-Sectors
IT, Software and Computer and Cloud Services
The outlook for the Irish IT market is very positive with IT spending expected to grow in line with economic growth projections of 5% though 2019.  End user demand for cloud computing [encompassing Software-as-a-Service (SaaS), Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS), and Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS)] is expected to underpin market demand going forward.  The rise in cloud adoption comes at a time when Irish businesses are seeing their data volumes explode.  In the next three years, Irish businesses anticipate that their data volumes will surge by 72 percent.  The growth in data has resulted in the average Irish enterprise spending €1.35 million on data storage, processing and handling in the past year.

There are 53 datacenters in Ireland with Hyperscale (Amazon, Facebook etc), being the dominant datacenter type accounting for 72% of capacity.  The colocation wholesale market has grown from almost zero to 13% in the past 3 years.   Further datacenters are planned in both the hyperscale and colocation segments.
 
Annual expenditure in enterprise software is about €258 million and is driven by document and content management solutions, business intelligence and analytics, database, web servers, and enterprise portals.  Expenditure on network storage software is around €62 million while the security software market is estimated at €124 million.  Spending on software in the healthcare sector is circa €85 million.

IOT /Smart Cities
Demand for Internet-of-Things (IOT) technology and services in Ireland is increasing particularly around applications within the healthcare, energy, transport, public sector and manufacturing industries.  Ireland’s three principal cities – Dublin, Cork and Limerick – have led the emergence of IOT/smart city projects in recent years. To date, all smart city initiatives have been built on top of legacy infrastructure and many decades of social and economic programs, rather than creating new smart city districts.  However, green-field initiatives are emerging in all three cities which have strong vision-oriented smart city strategies: Smart Dublin,  Cork Smart Gateway and Digital Limerick.  The All Ireland Smart Cities Forum is endeavoring to foster the development of similar strategies in other cities and regions of the country.  Leading U.S. ICT firms have played strong roles in the evolution of local smart cities projects.  The positive interest in learning about new and emerging smart cities initiatives originating in the U.S. underscores opportunities for emerging U.S. SMEs going forward. 

Opportunities

The Irish ICT market is open and highly competitive with many international suppliers offering new and innovative digital products and services.  U.S. vendors have a strong competitive presence in the market.  Irish distributors, systems integrators and value-added resellers (VARs) are continually seeking to identify and source the latest innovative digital products and services especially from the U.S.   The market offers excellent opportunities for U.S. firms including SMEs with innovative and leading-edge digital technologies.  Sector-specific opportunities exist across the ERP, Financial, Healthcare, Energy, and Telecom segments together with Cloud Computing, Data Analytics & Big Data and Smart Cities.     End user segments encompass organizations ranging from SMEs to large corporations and the public sector. 

Regulatory arrangements for the ICT sector are largely driven by the European Commission’s Digital Single Market (DSM) which is fostering initiatives on free flow of data; cybersecurity; e-Privacy; setting ICT standards; and intellectual property.  U.S. suppliers need to be particularly cognizant of data privacy issues specifically the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and EU-US Privacy Shield.  GDPR came into force on May 25, 2018 and is having a profound effect on the way that data controllers and data processors are being regulated.  It provides for the free flow of personal data within the EU and also for its protection when it leaves the region’s borders.  The EU-U.S. Privacy Shield Framework was designed by the U.S. Department of Commerce and the European Commission to provide companies on both sides of the Atlantic with a mechanism to comply with data protection requirements when transferring personal data from the European Union to the United States in support of transatlantic commerce.

Web Resources

Technology Ireland: https://www.technology-ireland.ie
Host in Ireland: http://hostinireland.com
TechCentral: http://www.techcentral.ie
Silicon Republic: http://www.siliconrepublic.com
Public Procurement Portal (eTenders): http://www.etenders.gov.ie

For more information about Ireland’s ICT and digital services sector, please contact:
Padraig O'Connor
Commercial Advisor - ICT Sector
U.S. Commercial Service Dublin
Tel: +353 1 2375848
Email: Padraig.O’Connor@trade.gov

Prepared by our U.S. Embassies abroad. With its network of 108 offices across the United States and in more than 75 countries, the U.S. Commercial Service of the U.S. Department of Commerce utilizes its global presence and international marketing expertise to help U.S. companies sell their products and services worldwide. Locate the U.S. Commercial Service trade specialist in the U.S. nearest you by visiting http://export.gov/usoffices.