Ireland
Working in Ireland: city by city
The permit threshold is national, the offer is not. What differs between cities is which industries hire, how pay compares and what to check in the contract.
No city figures here. Population, city-level pay and rent from official sources are separate work, and inventing them instead of citing them is not something this site does. Every number below is national and links to where it is explained.
Working in Dublin
The European headquarters of much of American technology and pharma, in a city the size of a mid-sized European town. That mismatch explains both the salaries and the rents.
Photo: 瑞丽江的河水 · CC BY-SA 4.0
What the city runs on
US multinationals. Technology, pharmaceuticals, medical devices and the financial services around them run their European operations from Dublin, and the roles that follow are frequently regional rather than Irish — you are hired here to cover a continent.
Why the numbers look odd on our Ireland page
Ireland's Critical Skills Employment Permit threshold sits below the national median full-time wage, which is the opposite of what a highly skilled bar usually looks like. In Dublin specifically that gap is wider still, because city salaries run above the national figure. The permit is unlikely to be your constraint; housing is.
What to check before you sign
Whether the role is Irish or regional, because it changes how much you will travel and sometimes which entity employs you. And start the housing search before you arrive — Dublin rental supply is the standard complaint of everyone who has moved there, and it is not exaggerated.
Working in Cork
Ireland's second city, and the one where pharmaceutical manufacturing actually happens rather than being administered. A different kind of job from the Dublin office roles.
Photo: Darius Whelan · CC BY 2.0
What the city runs on
Pharmaceutical and medical device manufacturing, chemicals, and a technology sector anchored by the local operations of several large firms. The harbour hosts industrial plants rather than container terminals, and University College Cork feeds engineering and science graduates into them.
Why it is worth considering over Dublin
The same national permit rules and the same tax bands apply, but housing costs and competition are markedly lower. For manufacturing, process engineering and quality roles the depth of the market here is genuinely comparable to Dublin, and in some specialities better.
What to check before you sign
Shift patterns and site location. Manufacturing sites sit outside the city, and public transport to them is limited enough that a car is usually assumed rather than discussed.
Working in Galway
A small city on the Atlantic coast with an unusually specialised industry: medical devices. If that is your field, the cluster here is disproportionate to the city's size.
Photo: Unknown author · CC BY-SA 3.0
What the city runs on
Medical device design and manufacturing, supported by the university and by decades of accumulated specialist supply chain. There is a software sector too, smaller, and tourism that shapes the city's character more than its payroll.
The honest picture of the market
Narrow and deep. Within medical devices and adjacent regulatory and quality disciplines, Galway competes with anywhere in Europe. Outside those fields the number of employers is small, and changing jobs without changing city can be difficult. Weigh that if you are moving with a partner who also needs work.
What to check before you sign
How many employers in the city could hire you if this job ended. In Dublin that question barely matters; in Galway it is the question.
This page is information, not advice. We are not an employer, a recruitment agency, a visa centre or an immigration adviser, and we are not affiliated with any government body. Rules change — confirm against the official source before you act.