Head of Manufacturing at Bank of Ireland Conor Magee provides an overview of the sector.
Manufacturing accounts for more than 30pc of GDP, almost double the EU average and so plays a key part of the Irish economy.
Recent growth has been strong and despite the headwinds of Covid-19, and Brexit Ireland was the only economy in the EU to grow in 2020. 2021 outlook remains positive with record performance in April and manufacturing is geared up to meet order backlogs and pent up demand.
Manufacturing directly supports 230,000 jobs and annual exports are €135bn. SMEs account for a significant proportion of firms operating in the key subsectors of Pharmaceuticals and Chemicals, Food and Drink, Medical Devices, Computers and Electronics, and Engineering.
A combination of a business-friendly environment, high educational level and skilled workforce ranks Ireland a relatively high 12 on the 2020 IMD World Competitiveness report.