Dr. Conor O'Toole:

Our work, as part of the last quarterly commentary, and work done by the Central Bank highlight the extent to which the economy is reliant on the ICT sector and the figures show: it is 20% of overall output; 10% of the national wage bill; over 6% of employment; and provides a quarter of our corporation tax. The ICT sector is very important for the functionality of the broader economy. However, because the sector is going through a period of adjustment, and the demand for digital services was perhaps assessed to be higher than what it has turned out to be and, as the pandemic period wanes, the sector is likely to experience challenges as it adjusts to a new normal. It is unlikely that Ireland will get away scot-free in terms of the adjustment given so many of the very large firms are located in Ireland and are such big employers. Notwithstanding all that, Ireland has some of the best productive companies in the world so the ICT sector is a great sector to have as a support to our economy and it must be a key element of our foreign direct investment, FDI, strategy to keep these firms here.