What it’s like to live and work in Dublin

Dublin is a pop­u­lar choice among major organ­i­sa­tions for their Euro­pean head­quar­ters and that makes it a like­ly des­ti­na­tion for inter­na­tion­als to live and work. 

The Irish cap­i­tal was recent­ly judged the most pop­u­lar loca­tion for finan­cial ser­vices firms to locate their EU offices. Fig­ures from EY show that 36 finan­cial ser­vices com­pa­nies have announced their inten­tion to relo­cate UK oper­a­tions and/or staff to Dublin, since the Brex­it ref­er­en­dum.

It is also home to the Euro­pean head­quar­ters of some of the largest glob­al tech­nol­o­gy com­pa­nies, includ­ing Microsoft, Google and Meta. The fast-grow­ing social media app Tik­Tok is the lat­est to join, sign­ing a long-term lease to rent 210,000sq ft of office space in the city’s south dock­lands.

Why are companies moving to the Irish capital?

One of the most impor­tant fac­tors dri­ving com­pa­nies to Dublin is Ireland’s busi­ness-friend­ly tax regime.

Cor­po­ra­tion tax in the coun­try stands at 12.5%, plac­ing it among the low­est cor­po­rate tax rates in Europe. This com­pares favourably with its clos­est neigh­bour, the UK, which has a cor­po­ra­tion tax rate of 19%. Com­pa­nies based in Ire­land can also ben­e­fit from a 25% tax cred­it on research and devel­op­ment.

As a tech hub Ire­land has a wealth of tal­ent, which helps it to punch above its weight when attract­ing com­pa­nies such as LinkedIn and Apple to its shores. Enter­prise Ire­land esti­mates that the coun­try has 80,000 tech pro­fes­sion­als work­ing in the indus­try, with Dublin’s Sil­i­con Docks at the cen­tre of the Irish tech­nol­o­gy sec­tor.

Soft­ware com­pa­ny Sales­force opened its first offices in Dublin in 2001 and cur­rent­ly employs around 3,000 peo­ple there. Sales­force Tow­er Dublin, a new cam­pus on the riv­er Lif­fey, is sched­uled to open lat­er this year.

Explain­ing why Sales­force has such a large pres­ence in Dublin, its senior direc­tor for employ­ee suc­cess, Ter­ri Moloney, says: “It has a strong rep­u­ta­tion as the dig­i­tal cap­i­tal of Europe and the city is home to 16 of the top 20 glob­al tech com­pa­nies in the world. It attracts a lot of inter­na­tion­al tal­ent and that makes the tal­ent mar­ket dynam­ic; it’s cer­tain­ly one of the top rea­sons busi­ness­es locate here.” 

What to expect when moving to Dublin

In com­mon with oth­er com­pa­nies, Sales­force pro­vides ser­vices and sup­port to help employ­ees with their relo­ca­tion. And while a com­mon con­cern is being able to speak the lan­guage of the tar­get coun­try, Moloney has good news on this point too: “There are 60 dif­fer­ent nation­al­i­ties in our offices and many dif­fer­ent lan­guages are spo­ken. You don’t have to have Eng­lish, you can man­age with lim­it­ed lan­guage skills,” she says.

Dublin has a rep­u­ta­tion as a wel­com­ing city. Accord­ing to the Inter­Na­tions Expat Insid­er 2021 report, which sur­veys inter­na­tion­al cit­i­zens liv­ing in cities across the world, Dublin ranks sixth for local friend­li­ness and 13th for ease of set­tling. 

Philip Kel­ly is employ­ee engage­ment and com­mu­ni­ca­tions lead at Irish ener­gy firm ESB. He has lived in Dublin since 2010, and lived and worked in Cork, Syd­ney and Swansea across his career. “My favourite thing about Dublin is prob­a­bly the peo­ple,” he says. “It’s a fun city and everyone’s very friend­ly, which makes it very easy to meet new peo­ple.” 

He adds that this social ele­ment is present across the city, with a cul­ture that caters to all tastes, from qui­et pubs to vibrant clubs, the­atre, shop­ping and restau­rants.

Moloney adds that there is a “small neigh­bour­hood feel in the city, which is real­ly attrac­tive. It’s a pret­ty safe coun­try, it’s very much a cul­tur­al cen­tre and there are a lot of inter­na­tion­al peo­ple here. This makes it easy for a lot of peo­ple to come and live here.”

How Dublin work life has been affected by the pandemic

The Irish cap­i­tal ranks third for work-life bal­ance and first for local career prospects and job secu­ri­ty, accord­ing to the Inter­Na­tions sur­vey. 

Speak­ing about his own com­pa­ny, Kel­ly says: “We work hard and everyone’s pro­fes­sion­al and tries to uphold the val­ues of ESB but we have a social ele­ment as well.”

In this sense, he believes Dublin work­ers can strike a good bal­ance. “Work is not the be all and end all,” he adds. “Rarely will you go to a par­ty where peo­ple ask you what you do for a liv­ing. Peo­ple put a lot into their work but it’s rarely their defin­ing char­ac­ter­is­tic.”

The impor­tance of this work-life bal­ance was empha­sised dur­ing the pan­dem­ic too and many offices have con­tin­ued with hybrid work­ing arrange­ments. Moloney says: “The hybrid work­ing mod­el has proven to be very pos­i­tive and is focused on the employ­ee expe­ri­ence. When you do come into the office, it’s about get­ting togeth­er with oth­er team mem­bers or attend­ing events.”

This social ele­ment of work is some­thing that has made a wel­come return now that Covid restric­tions have been lift­ed. “Busi­ness is done in our cof­fee docks as much as in our board­rooms,” Kel­ly adds. “It’s some­thing that we’ve been miss­ing dur­ing the pan­dem­ic – it’s hard to sched­ule a vir­tu­al call for a chat. Peo­ple missed those human inter­ac­tions, and I think that’s what we’re get­ting back to now.”

Is it expensive to live in Dublin?

Dublin is among the most expen­sive cities to live in the world, com­ing joint 19th in the Econ­o­mist Intel­li­gence Unit’s World­wide Cost of Liv­ing index, along­side Frank­furt and Shang­hai. This places the Irish cap­i­tal just below Lon­don when com­par­ing the costs of goods and ser­vices in each city.

This fact isn’t lost on expats, with 93% of Dublin-based inter­na­tion­als list­ing ‘expen­sive’ as the main char­ac­ter­is­tic of the city, accord­ing to Dublin’s Glob­al Rep­u­ta­tion report by the Dublin Cham­ber. 

One of the main con­trib­u­tors to this is the cost of hous­ing. The aver­age prop­er­ty price in Dublin is €509,575 (£436,530), while renters liv­ing in the city cen­tre can expect to pay €1,834 (£1,571) per month on aver­age. 

This is reflect­ed in the Expat Insid­er 2021 report, in which Dublin came last for finance and hous­ing for the fourth year run­ning, most­ly because of high hous­ing costs and the local cost of liv­ing.

The Dublin Cham­ber report lists hous­ing as one of the pri­or­i­ties for local gov­ern­ment to address to improve the cap­i­tal city’s glob­al rep­u­ta­tion. In the same report, it says: “The dys­func­tion­al hous­ing mar­ket in this city is cre­at­ing a neg­a­tive impres­sion both here and abroad. Until more hous­ing sup­ply becomes avail­able in the city, it will con­tin­ue to impact on the qual­i­ty of life of its res­i­dents and work­ers, and on Dublin’s inter­na­tion­al rep­u­ta­tion as a place to invest and live.”

The cham­ber sug­gests an increased hous­ing sup­ply would be one of the main solu­tions to the prob­lem. But with 18,630 res­i­den­tial units begin­ning con­struc­tion in Dublin and its com­muter towns last year – the most in any year since 2006, accord­ing to the Bank­ing and Pay­ment Fed­er­a­tion Ire­land – this prob­lem is look­ing to be addressed.

Kel­ly adds: “For peo­ple who first move to Dublin, they can be side­tracked by the tourist traps and often end up eat­ing in the most expen­sive places or drink­ing at the most expen­sive bars. Dublin is a city that unveils itself slow­ly to peo­ple and it takes some time to find the hid­den gems.

“It isn’t all about the Tem­ple Bar. There’s a whole lot more that Dublin has to offer.”

You can read more from our Work­ing Around the World series here.

Dublin is a popular choice among major organisations for their European headquarters and that makes it a likely destination for internationals to live and work. 

The Irish capital was recently judged the most popular location for financial services firms to locate their EU offices. Figures from EY show that 36 financial services companies have announced their intention to relocate UK operations and/or staff to Dublin, since the Brexit referendum.

It is also home to the European headquarters of some of the largest global technology companies, including Microsoft, Google and Meta. The fast-growing social media app TikTok is the latest to join, signing a long-term lease to rent 210,000sq ft of office space in the city’s south docklands.

Why are companies moving to the Irish capital?