American customs’ tasks “will affect Irish growth” next year, warned the government on Tuesday during the presentation of its annual budget of 2026, which will not prevent it from injected billions of euros into public services and reduce taxes.
With advantageous taxes for companies, Ireland sees their recipes inflated by the many multinationals every year, including US technological giants (Apple, Google or the parent company of Facebook, Meta), which installed its European seat there, to declare most of its income in the continent. The country continues to present a budget surplus for next year (that is, thanks to this unexpected gain, the country receives more than it spends), but is reduced to 5,100 million euros.
8 billion additional public expenses
Therefore, Irish economic growth should decrease to 2.3% next year, compared to 3.3% in 2025, he said. This context did not prevent Dublin, which increased its tax rate last year to 15% against 12.5% before, announcing 9.4 billion euros in additional budgetary measures on Tuesday, including 8.1 billion euros in public expenses and 1.3 billion euros in tax reductions.
The pharmaceutical industry, in particular, is an engine of the Irish economy and represents about 100 billion euros in 2024, almost half of all Irish exports, approximately 30% compared to the previous year. The Irish Finance Ministry has recently warned that the introduction of US customs tasks could have an impact on the labor market, which could cause the loss of 70,000 jobs in five years.
Source: BFM TV
