Ireland · European Union / EEA
Dublin for climate-tech expansion
The natural bridge city: English-speaking, inside the EU single market, and a short flight from every UK buyer.
Indicative year one
€270,463
3 people, desks and set-up · €90,154 per person
Cost rank
8 of 14
Lowest first-year cost is rank 1 across the benchmarked corridor cities.
Entity
5 days
Typical incorporation time.
Where Dublin is strong
- 12.5% corporation tax and full EU market access with English as the working language
- Enterprise Ireland and IDA support is unusually hands-on
- Easiest place for a UK team to run an EU entity without a language change
What to watch
- Housing shortage makes relocation genuinely hard and expensive
- Talent competition with large US tech employers pushes salaries up
Sector strengths
- Energy
- AgriTech
- Climate data
- Circular economy
Setting up: An Irish company takes about a week to register and gives EU-wide contracting and CE-marking standing.
The numbers, and where they come from
Indicative benchmarks compiled from public sources for comparison. Confirm figures with a local adviser before committing budget.
Cost to operate
Prime office rent
€700
EUR per m² per year
Headline rent for good-quality central space. Fringe and industrial space is cheaper.
Around average · reference year 2025 · Verified secondary source
Source: Commercial property benchmarks (CBRE / JLL market reports)
Coworking desk
€400/mo
EUR per desk per month
What a small landing team actually pays in month one, before signing a lease.
Around average · reference year 2025 · Requires review
Headline corporation tax
12.5%
% of profit
Combined national (and local, where it applies) headline rate. Reliefs are not included.
Best in comparison · reference year 2026 · Verified primary source
Source: National revenue authorities / OECD corporate tax statistics
Employer social charges
11.25%
% on top of salary
The real cost of a hire is salary plus this. It moves first-year budgets more than rent.
Above average · reference year 2026 · Verified primary source
Source: National social security authorities / OECD Taxing Wages
People
Senior engineer salary
€75,000
EUR per year, gross
Midpoint for an experienced engineer. Cheap talent and deep talent rarely sit together.
Below average · reference year 2025 · Verified secondary source
Source: Salary benchmarks (Eurostat earnings, national tech salary surveys)
Technical talent depth
78/100
index, 0–100
Size of the local engineering and climate-technical workforce you can hire from.
Below average · reference year 2025 · Verified secondary source
Source: Eurostat / national labour statistics on ICT and engineering employment
English working proficiency
100/100
index, 0–100
How easily an English-first team can hire, sell and handle paperwork locally.
Best in comparison · reference year 2025 · Verified secondary source
Source: EF English Proficiency Index
Living
Home rent, one bedroom
€2,100/mo
EUR per month, central
What relocating a founder or first hire actually costs them each month.
Below average · reference year 2025 · Verified secondary source
Cost of living
92/100
index, London = 100
Everyday costs excluding rent, indexed against London.
Below average · reference year 2025 · Verified secondary source
Quality of life
76/100
index, 0–100
Health, safety, environment, transport and commute — what keeps a team once it is hired.
Below average · reference year 2025 · Verified secondary source
Source: OECD Better Life indicators / Mercer quality-of-living ranking
Capital
Climate-tech VC invested
€220m
EUR millions per year
How much climate money is actually deployed locally, and so how many investor meetings exist.
Below average · reference year 2025 · Verified secondary source
Grant and public funding access
86/100
index, 0–100
Breadth of grant routes a company based here can apply to, national and EU or UK level.
Around average · reference year 2026 · Verified secondary source
Source: National innovation agencies, Horizon Europe and Innovate UK programme scope
Climate-tech
Testbeds and industrial demand
66/100
index, 0–100
Places to run a real pilot: test rigs, port and grid infrastructure, industrial buyers.
Below average · reference year 2026 · Requires review
Source: GreenLaunch ecosystem directory (named testbeds, catapults, ports and utilities)
Market access
Population within two hours
4m people
millions of people
How many customers a salesperson can reach and return from in a single day.
Below average · reference year 2025 · Verified secondary source
Public procurement openness
78/100
index, 0–100
How realistically a foreign SME can win public and utility contracts here.
Around average · reference year 2025 · Verified secondary source
Source: EU Single Market Scoreboard / UK Cabinet Office procurement data
Setup
Time to incorporate
5 days
working days
How fast you can have a local entity able to sign contracts and open a bank account.
Above average · reference year 2026 · Verified primary source
Source: National company registries (Companies House, KVK, Bolagsverket and equivalents)
Visa and relocation route
72/100
index, 0–100
How straightforward it is to move a founder or key hire here and keep them.
Below average · reference year 2026 · Verified secondary source
Source: National immigration authorities (skilled-worker and startup visa routes)
Free soft-landing support in Dublin
- Enterprise Ireland
Supports overseas startups establishing in Ireland, including funding routes.
- IDA Ireland
Site selection, grants and employer support for inward investors.
Score Dublin against your own company
GreenLaunch weights every one of these figures against your sector, stage, customers and priorities, compares up to four cities side by side and produces a shortlist report you can share with your board.