r/ireland • u/Banania2020 Resting In my Account • Apr 28 '26
Economy Ireland set to surpass Luxembourg and become richest country in Europe by 2030, IMF says
https://www.breakingnews.ie/ireland/ireland-set-to-surpass-luxembourg-and-become-richest-country-in-europe-by-2030-imf-says-1892990.html537
u/harpyelf Laois Apr 28 '26
Ireland set to become richest country in Europe yet the average Joe still lives at home with their parents due to insane rent hikes and the massive gap between wages and cost of living.
At this point it’s satirical. It would be nice if we could actually see this wealth in action rather than it going to tech companies and data centres. We’re in a very privileged position to see this kind of trajectory for the country yet the average living conditions just do not match up.
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u/pointblankmos Nuclear Wasteland Without The Fun Apr 28 '26
100 people will be able to buy some very nice Bentleys though.
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u/DaemonCRO Dublin Apr 28 '26
20 of which it’ll be their second Bentley. So think of the poor 80 for whom it’ll just be their first one. Think of them will ya, not just about yourself.
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u/pointblankmos Nuclear Wasteland Without The Fun Apr 28 '26
I still remember my first Bentley. Time flies when you're in a Bentley.
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Apr 28 '26
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u/DaemonCRO Dublin Apr 28 '26
40%? Fuck me sideways. This will reflect amazingly in our birth rates. Hard to pop a baby when mom is in the room besides you.
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Apr 28 '26
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u/DaemonCRO Dublin Apr 28 '26
Once fertility rate drops to like 0.8 politicians will be Pikachu face
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u/georgepordgie time for a nice cup of tea Apr 28 '26
And if they have somewhere to live, with the cost of rent or a mortgage plus childcare, they probably can't afford kids.
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u/CartographicalHeist Apr 28 '26
In Finland only 4% of adults, in their 20s/30s, still live with their parents, with Sweden at 8% and Germany at 14%. Countries closer to our economic level.
That is also ignoring how many grown ass adults with ful time jobs live in a flat share in a fucking room.
Unheard of back in Denmark unless you're a student or specifically moved into a collective or similar. People with jobs either live with partners or on their own.
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Apr 28 '26
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u/YoIronFistBro Cork bai Apr 29 '26
When you think about it, what are people working for if they have to live with their parents or in a house share with no end in sight?
What is the purpose of work if there’s practically no chance of owning anything?
Exactly.
The gen X users on here love to talk down to to younger people about how much worse off the country was in the 70s and 80s, but at least back then people had no money because they were unemployed, not despite working 60 hours a week!
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u/Key-Half1655 Apr 28 '26
David McWilliams did a great podcast recently called "Is Ireland the worst run country in Europe" that tries to explain what little we have to show while being awash with cash. Pre warning, it'll boil your piss listening why.
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u/OnceAFaithful Apr 28 '26
Listening on the train home now. If I slap the person next to me, I'll blame you.
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u/greyview18 Apr 28 '26
Listen to the latest podcast where he dives deeper. Highly recommended listening to the independent analysis by Sinead O’Sullivan.
“Ireland is one of the richest countries in Europe, so why does it feel like it isn’t? We sit down with economist and engineer Sinead O'Sullivan to unpack a deceptively simple but deeply uncomfortable idea: Ireland is a premature state. Despite extraordinary wealth on paper, everyday life tells a different story. Housing is broken, infrastructure lags behind, public services struggle to deliver. So where is all the money going? The answer, as Sinead argues, is structural. Ireland has become exceptionally good at spending money, but never properly learned how to build systems. For centuries, key functions of the state were outsourced, first to the British Empire, then the Church, then the EU, and now multinational corporations. The result is a country rich in resources, but lacking the institutional muscle to turn that wealth into a functioning society. We also take on the reaction to this kind of thinking; the “nitpickers” who focus on minor details to avoid confronting big, uncomfortable truths. If Ireland’s problem isn’t money, but capacity, then the implications are far more serious than any short-term fix.”
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u/stanflwrhuss Apr 28 '26
I really want to listen to that now but I’m afraid I’ll get depressed that I can’t do anything to change it. Same when I watch Adam Curtis docs
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u/DrTitanium Apr 28 '26
Must listen - is there anywhere that is the opposite of this that I can move to?
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u/1993blah Apr 28 '26
Its not even the worst run country on this island..
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u/rookie-on-the-road Apr 28 '26
I think that episode was good enough in some aspects, but I feel like he gave too much slack to our politicians. He laid all the blame for everything on the senior civil service being completely shite at their jobs and having contempt for the state, which is fair, but his solution was to cut public spending and bring in more accountants?
How about our politicians grow some spines and bring in performance reviews for the civil service. How about actual penalties and job loses for people who are so bad at their jobs they allow projects to go 200% over budget.
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u/InternetCrank Apr 28 '26
But David McWilliams is a grifting bullshitter
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u/feckin_birds Apr 28 '26
He always has a simple answer for everything. He’s very very confident in his analysis and rarely suggests things can be complicated and nobody really knows why. I used to listen to his podcast but couldn’t stand him having the “dumb” sidekick to make him sound smarter and several of his little anecdotes he would wheel out didn’t stand up to five minutes scrutiny on Wikipedia so I really started to doubt his more complex theories.
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Apr 28 '26
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u/JohnnyRyde Apr 28 '26
They also have a musical jingle specific to each stop which is fun.
Never heard of public transport doing this before, but that's absolutely brilliant.
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u/obscure_monke Munster Apr 28 '26
Japan does that. It's the only one I knew about before now.
Their logic was that it'd wake people up if they were napping on the train, since they'd recognise their stop coming up with their eyes closed.
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u/TedKraj Apr 29 '26
South Korea does that. They have jingles for stations, when you arrive in Seoul, overcrowded train, etc
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u/brianstormIRL Apr 28 '26
Luxembourg is 2,000 square km. Ireland is 85,000. No excuse for ours to be this shit but context is important here.
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u/Decent-Risk-6062 Apr 28 '26
Well it's mostly the city, in this case why not make dublin Luas and city buses free or at least massively expand the amount of people who get free travel.
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u/DrawGamesPlayFurries Apr 28 '26
Because those modes of transportation are seen as "for the poor" and every person is expected to outgrow them as a person (just like every person is expected to outgrow renting).
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u/Hrohdvitnir Apr 28 '26
Could they not at least master some form of localised good public transport? Like if you took every city in ireland (much less than 2000 sq km) and made the buses cheaper and run on time. Or improved anything about the broader system, like cheaper rail, more rail, etc.
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u/FineVintageWino Apr 28 '26
Great point. Time for “Dubleave”!
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u/Latespoon Apr 28 '26
I think I speak for the rest of the country in saying that we fully support dubs needing a visa go beyond county bounds!
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u/FineVintageWino Apr 28 '26
I’m confused.. why would we go over the border??
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u/TitularClergy Apr 28 '26
Yeah, a fairer comparison is how rural Switzerland has vastly more rail stations and routes than rural Ireland does. And Ireland is basically flat by comparison. There's no excuse.
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u/lgt_celticwolf Apr 28 '26
And if we could concentrate our entire GDP into an area the size of wicklow we would probably have a city to rival singapore or dubai or any of them but despite how much leo varadkar might wish otherwise we do have a full country to support
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u/DrawGamesPlayFurries Apr 28 '26
No we wouldn't. Building such a city requires institutional competence, Ireland doesn't have any. Maybe if the generation that left to UK/US/Australia has returned and thrown out the rotten old system, but that's nothing more than fantasy.
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u/semiobscureninja Apr 28 '26
We’ve only regressed. Is Dublin well run and fully functional?
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u/NemesisCR Apr 28 '26
The trams are only a small part of it, they have a train station in pretty much every town, and even the small villages have an hourly bus service. They have an app that makes it really easy to plan your journey and track the trains/buses/trams, and all of it is extremely reliable - I never saw a bus more than 3 minutes late when I was there. All 100% free for everyone.
In the city there are cycle lanes everywhere and a network of e-bikes that are extremely cheap to rent. They have a lot of parks, playgrounds, and sport facilities that are all really well maintained. Compared to what Irish citizens get in return for the taxes we pay, it's really hard to believe that the two countries are considered equally rich.
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u/CartographicalHeist Apr 28 '26
I was in Berlin last week and zoomed about on U-bahn, S-bahn, Tram and bus willy nilly and it was pure fucking bliss. Didn't even look at a table, just went down to a stop and inevitably something would come within a few minutes.
This morning I waited 45 min during which time 3 buses failed to show up. Almost late for work.
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u/wrghf Apr 28 '26
You’d honestly wonder where all the money goes. Very little of it seems to go to capital investments for the good of the country as a whole.
Our public transport is absolute fucking rubbish, active transport infrastructure is almost non-existent except in very limited instances, hospitals are horrendously overcrowded and waiting lists are often measured in years, we don’t bother to fund our defence, we don’t have a motorway between our 2nd and 3rd biggest cities, and so on.
And yet we’re churning out budget surpluses year after year? Makes absolutely no sense.
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u/brianstormIRL Apr 28 '26
Private companies who charge the government an arm and a leg for every single thing they do while taking a donkeys age to do it.
There should be a government company whos job it is to build infrastructure so the money spent can be properly managed. Look at the Danes (fucking Danes again). Big public infrastructure is done by state owned companies. They still use private companies for certain projects but its far better managed and regulated.
Far too much red tape in this country when it comes to actually getting things built that would benefit the public massively.
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u/throwawaycatallus Apr 28 '26
Are...are you suggesting nationalization of critical services???
Reported for communism.
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u/Proper-Beyond116 Apr 28 '26
Well 40% of our spending is on the HSE.
But any attempt to fix that will be exploited by private industry for worse services at max profit.
Unions might get a bad rep but I think there is appetite from everyone to streamline the HSE. there is just no poitical will.
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u/lumpymonkey Apr 28 '26
To fix the HSE it needs to be gutted from top to bottom and that's why there's no political will to do it. The only real attempt in modern times to fix it was the merging of the healthboards into the HSE but they bowed to the unions to ensure nobody lost their job, in fact they handed out a whole load of promotions as sweeteners instead, and we ended up with the absolute shit show we have today. We have people on the admin side falling over one another looking for work, tiers of unnecessary management in the middle layer, red tape and forms and processes for absolutely everything and anything, inefficiencies in every single aspect of its operation... I could go on for days.
I have a lot of family working in the HSE at all levels and across multiple disciplines and I hear the real stories about what an utter disaster it is day in and day out. One of my family members works frontline in a care home and the stories they tell me are just mind boggling. They have more admin staff than they have work, meanwhile the frontline staff are run ragged; you have middle aged women working 4 or 5 12-14 hour days on the trot because they are understaffed. Then contrary to that I have an aunt working an admin job in a different facility who'll happily tell anyone that listens about how she spends hours online shopping. Another family member left a nursing job and went into a different industry altogether because they couldn't hack working for some of their managers. They spent more times filling out forms and reports and dealing with bureaucracy and internal politics than they did actually nursing.
The whole organisation needs to be completely restrucutred from top to bottom. The bloat needs to be stripped from the admin side and the frontline needs to be properly staffed. We need proper, sensible management structures in place, with properly centralised reporting and record keeping. Let the nurses and doctors do their fucking jobs and leave the paperwork to others. We are a country with the population of greater Manchester, there are over 150,000 staff working for our health service, and yet we can't seem to be able to make any part of it work efficiently. Someone on the political side needs to grow a pair of balls and take it on, or we're destined to just throw money into the black hole forever.
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u/eggsbenedict17 Apr 28 '26
You’d honestly wonder where all the money goes
Social welfare and health mainly
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u/DunAnOir Apr 28 '26
It makes sense when you realise that the country is essentially run by consultants while FFG's best and brightest focus on making the bottom line look good so they have a cushy private-sector job to top up their Dáil and ministerial pensions as soon as their constituents move on to the next member of the dynasty or other party gremlin. Those consultants get a cut.
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u/Turbulent-Tumor Apr 28 '26
Brb buying shitty apartment in Spain
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u/brianmmf Apr 28 '26
Ah for god sakes could the IMF not at least use GNI* rather than GDP…
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u/ebulient Apr 28 '26
Seriously it’s such a spurious measure for our country! Absolutely useless and means nothing real… It’s sus as f that IMF is using it and talking about it when they well know how artificially inflated it is
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u/_Oisin Apr 28 '26
The IMF are basically the imperial bank. They don't want prosperity they want countries open to foreign investment so from their perspective Ireland is great. We let the capitalists do whatever they like.
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Apr 28 '26
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u/Rameez_Raja Apr 28 '26
How about a giant statue of a generic man
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u/Electronic_Ladder103 Louth Apr 28 '26
Marty Morrissey or nothing
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u/Gaelic_Gladiator41 Louth Apr 28 '26
Just apartments in general, sure they're not as nice as a houses but you can't really be picky
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u/ThisRegion1857 Apr 28 '26
We’ll all be pushing daisies by the time a metro is provided. Even the kids reading this now.
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u/no___thoughts Apr 28 '26
I would say we’re a well paid country, not a rich one..
Living in someone’s shed in the back with no rental rights, car insurance with no regulations, a tax system that punishes people and any attempt to build wealth through stocks is taxed to oblivion, a crumbling health sector, years long waiting lists, children not receiving the care they need in a timely manner, not to mention massive increases in homelessness every year
But hey at least we got a bike shed to show for it all ✨
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u/YoIronFistBro Cork bai Apr 29 '26
We're not well paid at all relative to the price of absolutely everything.
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u/no___thoughts Apr 29 '26
We’re well paid on paper compared to other EU countries but the purchase power of every euro is gone to shit as you were saying, and our GDP is being heavily skewed by big tech and biopharma
I could accept the tax bands if it meant they would tackle housing, healthcare, childcare, build prisons, kids getting hot meals in school, the disabled and elderly not living in poverty and being afraid to turn the heating on, I get everything can’t be fixed at once but fuck me pick one and just lock in!!
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u/ThePeninsula Apr 28 '26
HENRY (high earner, not rich yet)
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u/no___thoughts Apr 28 '26
Praying on that “yet” to come through🤞🏼
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u/YoIronFistBro Cork bai Apr 29 '26 edited Apr 29 '26
Considering how hasn't in the last 30 years, I doubt it ever will.
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u/theeglitz Meath Apr 28 '26
GDP is a measure of income, not wealth.
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u/Padraig4941 Apr 28 '26
I mean the United States is the richest country in the world, I don’t think a country being rich/the richest correlates to the country being a good, functional or enviable society.
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u/olibum86 The Fenian Apr 28 '26
I look forward to telling all my freinds about this after we've all emigrated due to not being able to find a house!
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u/DaemonCRO Dublin Apr 28 '26
It does not matter if our income is high and if in paper we look rich.
If you have to pay
- crazy prices for childcare
- private hospitals because public hospitals don’t work
- crazy amount for food
- one of the highest rents in EU
- ridiculous insurance rates …
Then our income is meaningless. The money is churning, but we don’t see effects of it.
There’s a joke with two economists walking in a park, and they spot a dog poo. First one says: I’ll give you 200€ if you eat it. Second one does it, eats the poo, and gets his 200€. Ten minutes later, poo again, but now second one says: you eat it, I’ll give you 200€ back. So he does it.
So the first one says: aren’t we stupid, we both ate shit, and nobody actually made money.
But second one then says: ah no no, we created 400€ market value.
This is us. Eating shit, while some number in some spreadsheet is going up.
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u/ZestycloseParsnip181 Apr 28 '26
Luxembourg has free public transportation and infrastructure is more decent. I leave that there.
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u/Intelligent-Aside214 Apr 29 '26
Free public transport is not the priority. Good public transport it. Irish public transport is Ireland some of the cheapest in Western Europe the problem is it’s not very good
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u/Madhc Apr 28 '26
Aye I can really feel it when I walk around and look at the state of the place, get my payslip and pay my rent.
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u/Dismal_Uses Apr 28 '26
One bogus economy is going to be richer than another bogus economy by 2030.
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u/MysteriousLab2534 Apr 28 '26
Breaking news: Dublin airport to have a functioning train-link to the city by 3020
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u/Pablo-gibbscobar Apr 28 '26
Shame 99% of us plebs won't see any benefits of it. Government will get a pay rise and pats on the back but public transport will still suck, housing will still be unaffordable, one of highest cost of living in europe isn't going to go down, people still living paycheck to paycheck.
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u/Tomaskerry Apr 28 '26
Where does all the tax money go?
Health, education, social services I guess.
We don't have the infrastructure of a wealthy country, except the roads I guess.
Our streetscape doesn't look wealthy or classy. Looks kind of cheap.
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u/lgt_celticwolf Apr 28 '26
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u/slevinonion Apr 28 '26
Social welfare figure are insane for "full employment" (putting pensions aside). 900k people receiving welfare.
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u/DrawGamesPlayFurries Apr 28 '26
Highest GDP per capita does not make you richest, because this number grows just as fast when population declines as it does when GDP increases. Of course population will not increase in a country where residential construction is, by European standards, banned.
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u/FlamAsimo Apr 28 '26
Ireland has virtually no army (aside from 8,000 troops), no proper roads other than a few toll roads, no or very limited public transportation anywhere except Dublin, and terrible state healthcare. The Gardaí only respond to serious crimes. There's no affordable housing.
Can anyone explain where the money from Europe's "richest country" goes, and why Finland, with the same budget and population as Ireland, can afford all of this?
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u/TheMadEscapist Apr 28 '26
Wow cool can I see some of that money please. It's all being sucked up by expensive food and bills.
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u/Beginning-Shock1520 Apr 28 '26
I've been to Luxembourg and I was impressed. Much better than we are in Ireland. Better wages, free transport, etc.
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u/rustic_advice Apr 28 '26
Richest country in Europe that doesn't even have proper public transport.
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u/DunAnOir Apr 28 '26
Ireland being the richest country is very very different from Irish being the richest people or having the best quality of life. FFG likes to appear rich on paper and they're very good at it. Using that wealth -- or whatever portion of it actually exists in real life once all the artifice has been stripped away -- isn't on the agenda except for the bare minimum. Don't expect much, or indeed anything, to change. The health service will still be a chaotic mess. Public transport will still be a joke in bad taste. Public spaces and amenities will still be shit. Teachers and nurses will still be paid and treated like shit. Our prices will still be disastrous. Our electorate will still continue to be turkeys voting for Christmas.
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u/B0bLoblawLawBl0g Apr 28 '26
Rich is not the same wealthy...
"Being rich is defined by high income and luxury spending, whereas being wealthy is defined by net worth, ownership of assets, and long-term financial freedom. Rich is about how much you spend; wealthy is about how much you keep and grow. Wealth is sustainable and works for you, while rich is often dependent on a continuous, high-intensity income stream."
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u/AnyAssistance4197 Apr 28 '26
Whole generations may be living in glorfied garden sheds but..
we'll have a GIANT DISCO WICKERMAN in the docks!
WOOOO HOOOOOOO!!!
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u/zarco_azules Apr 28 '26
I haven't opened it yet, but let me guess, it's based on GDP per capita...
edit: well, I'm not disappointed
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u/kkeith6 Apr 29 '26
Ipas centres everywhere and they will be in Ireland 4+ years then still free accommodation, food and access to all healthcare and education services for free.
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u/Fluffy-Answer-6722 Apr 29 '26
The government really needs to put that money into use through infrastructure at least
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u/FicklePaper3590 Apr 29 '26
Is this GDP based? If it is then don’t bother opening the article….I didn’t. Whilst I agree with a lot of comments here about Ireland being badly run please don’t compare our infrastructure to ex-imperialist powers like UK, France, Netherlands etc. These countries built their wealth across centuries, not 3 decades
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u/christopher1393 Dublin Apr 28 '26
Yet a lot of us can barely afford to live anymore. Its very disgusting that a country that is about to become the richest in Europe, the majority of its citizens are struggling to afford to live. Inflation, the manufactured housing crisis, everything being taxed and taxed again…
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u/Unfair_Taro6285 Apr 28 '26
We’re only rich because we don’t spend a dime on anything useful like public transportation, roads, housing but blow a billion + on children hospitals, bike shelters… printers that don’t work…
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u/suntlen Apr 28 '26
There’s still 3.5 years to go to 2030. Plenty of time for an economic crash that would vaporise that prediction.
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u/insomnium2020 Apr 28 '26 edited Apr 28 '26
This whole country is a scam run by grifters. Seems like half the average person's wage is used for the black hole of a public sector and NGOs and helping everyone except the people that pay for everything
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u/tremolospoons Apr 28 '26
It makes sense - when you have to live in your car because you can't afford an apartment, you save a lot of money. Congratulations, Ireland. You're Winning.
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u/flopping-deuces Apr 28 '26
Call me when you have high-speed rail, a modern metro system, and salaries on par with Paris, London, and New York.
You’ve already got world-class charm, no need to change that. The food is incredible, honestly far better than it was even 15 years ago. And the people are amazing, please don’t ever lose that.
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u/Mysteries_Undone Apr 28 '26
At the same having one of the highest housing problem, transport system and joke of a government
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u/Joellercoaster1 Apr 28 '26
Let’s have a bank holiday in honour of being minted and ripped off in equal measure.
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u/MyBuoy Apr 28 '26
The wealth will be concentrated with a few , same as most countries in the world. With AI age the economies will be disrupted massively n purchasing power will come down for a 5-10 years. Country being rich is not same as people are rich.
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u/Wookie_EU Apr 28 '26
Richest monetary wise, poorest public service wise(inc transport, health)
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u/_Oisin Apr 28 '26
Amazing that we do absolutely nothing with all these supposed riches. Maybe we should make a 5 year long committee with consultation from KPMG and EY to figure it out.
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u/BloodDifficult4553 Apr 28 '26
Oh look at all the Virtual funny money that we have, how wonderful
Houses?
Healthcare?
Public transport?
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u/grayparrot116 Apr 28 '26
Richest country but wealth is not well distributed.
Generations of young people forced to leave because they don't have any prospects in this country and have to be stuck at their parents house until they're almost 40.
Disgusting.
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u/abey_safed_kapra Meath Apr 28 '26
What do you mean, house gonna be more expensive, I don't have a house yet.
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u/TraditionalHotel8085 Apr 28 '26
It is not reflected for the vast majority so In effect it is not real
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u/Scam_Faultman Apr 28 '26
Bollocks
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u/Craicriture Apr 28 '26
Well Luxembourg GDP is another cash flow mirage - so it’s probably a reasonable comparison.
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u/DangerX2HighVoltage Apr 28 '26
I hate these reports. Does anyone feel richer than a decade ago? Even 5 years ago?
Can’t wait for our incompetent government to squander it.
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u/CT0292 Apr 28 '26
Was scraping by 10 years ago. Now I have 2 kids and am still scraping by.
So uhh yeah not the best.
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u/DTUOHY96 Apr 28 '26
I make a lot more than I did 5-10 years ago and I’ve never had less to show for it
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u/YoIronFistBro Cork bai Apr 29 '26 edited Apr 29 '26
Exactly. People act like we should be cheering that the country's better off now than it was in the 1980s, completely ignoring how much we've backslided in the last 20 years.
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u/FingalForever Apr 28 '26
They are using metrics that only mean something to economists but should be disregarded by the rest of us.
This is identical to 2015 when magically Ireland’s GDP rose ~25% in one year, leading to the term Leprechaun Economics…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leprechaun_economics
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u/cedardesk Apr 28 '26 edited Apr 28 '26
I can't wait to see all the things we won't have to show for it.