Spending on research and development (R&D) by firms in Ireland amounted to €7 billion in 2023, according to the Central Statistics Office (CSO).
This was 81 per cent higher than the €3.9 billion total measured in 2021.
Foreign-owned enterprises accounted for 84 per cent or €5.9 billion of all R&D expenditure in 2023.
Conversely Irish-owned enterprises accounted for 16 per cent or €1.1 billion of total R&D expenditure.
Spending on R&D was also found to be heavily concentrated with the top 10 enterprises accounting for 58 per cent or €4 billion of the total compared with 37 per cent in 2021.
Ireland’s headline productivity and R&D levels have always flattered to deceive because multinationals have a bigger presence in the Irish economy and because these companies typically spend more on R&D than average firms.
Productivity growth among Irish SMEs has not kept pace for a variety of reasons.
A recent OECD report blamed this on poor skills development, a slower pace of digitisation and/or a lack of internationalisation.
The CSO study showed large enterprises with 250 or more staff had the greatest share of R&D expenditure in 2023, accounting for 77.1 per cent (€5.4 billion) of all expenditure while medium sized enterprises and small enterprises accounted for 12.6 per cent and 10.3 per cent respectively.
The manufacturing sector, at €3.6 billion, accounted for more than half (51.3 per cent) of all R&D spending in 2023 while services (other sectors excluding manufacturing) accounted for the remaining 48.7 per cent (€3.4 billion).
