An Economic Audit of the county was carried out in 2004 by the South Dublin County Development Board of which South Dublin County Enterprise Board is a member. Extracts from the executive summary are presented here. The complete Economic Audit is available to download, click here.
Geographic Location: South Dublin County forms part of the Dublin metropolitan region. The county occupies a total land area of 22,301 hectares and has borders with the three other local authority areas in Dublin: Dublin City, Dun Laoghaire-Rathdown, and Fingal. It also has borders with County Wicklow, County Meath and County Kildare. Together these form the Greater Dublin Area.
Economic Growth and Development: The county has experienced remarkable economic expansion over the last decade. This growth reflects the strong performance of the Irish economy since the 1990s, and particularly the strong economic performance of the Greater Dublin Area.
Land Use and Zoning: At present there are 1,286 hectares of net industrial zoned lands in the county. Most of the developed industrial and office-based lands are located in the older industrial areas of Tallaght, Clondalkin, Ballymount and Bluebell in the east of the county. These areas are close to the city and strategically located along the Naas Road and the M50 motorway. Outside of this main cluster, there is significant development of industrial and office-based lands in the western part of the county – in the newer industrial areas of Greenogue, Grange Castle, Baldonnel and Citywest.
As of March 2003, three hundred and eighty-three hectares (29.8%) of lands zoned for industry remain undeveloped. When developed, these industrial lands have the potential to provide a major source of new employment within the county. Most of the undeveloped lands are in the newer industrial areas of Greenogue and Baldonnell, and in the two recently developed international business parks at Grange Castle and Citywest.
Demographic Change: The population of the county in 2002 was 238,835. This represents 6.1% of the total national population of 3.92 million. The population grew by 9.2% over the 1996-2002 period. Forty-one per cent of the population in South Dublin County is aged less than 25 years, compared with 36.9% for the whole of the Dublin area. Lucan has the highest percentage of the population aged under 44 (82.44%), followed by Firhouse (77.92% aged <44), Clondalkin (77.1%) and Tallaght (74.65%).
Physical Infrastructure: The County has an excellent transport and telecommunications infrastructure. The M50 motorway links South Dublin County to Dublin Airport and to other national primary routes including the N7 (which connects South Dublin County to the southwest), the N81 which links south to Wexford, the N4 which connects to the West, and the M1 which links to Belfast. To meet the challenge of a growing economy and a rapidly increasing demand for travel within the region, significant investment has been made to improve the transport infrastructure. The improvements in the road network, the LUAS on-street light rail line, and the introduction of Quality Bus Corridors, are some indicators of the progress made during the past decade.
In the area of telecommunications, high levels of capacity and carriers (such as Eircom, Esat BT, ESB Telecom, NTL, and Cable & Wireless) have resulted in strong competition and competitive prices in the telecommunications sector. The National Digital Park is located in the Citywest Business Campus, and is the landing place for global crossings of fibre optic cable. It is the state’s point of presence for transatlantic fibre, providing a direct fibre link to 24 cities in Europe, the US, South America and Asia Pacific. Apart from the transport and telecommunications infrastructures, the county has excellent gas and electricity distribution and transmission network infrastructures and efficient water supply and wastage management systems.
Labour Force: The size of the labour force and the labour participation rate both increased over the 1996-2002 period. In 2002 the labour force consisted of 119,632 persons. There were 110,101 employed, representing 92% of the labour force, and unemployment stood at 9,531 (8% of the labour force). The size of the labour force increased from 97,455 in 1996 to 119,632 in 2002, an increase of 23%. Over the same period, the rate of unemployment in the county decreased from 14.9% to 8%.
The labour force participation rate in South Dublin County is 3.4% higher than the average for the Dublin Metropolitan Area. Between 1996 and 2002 the labour force participation rate increased by 3.5%. The female participation rate increased by over seven percentage points during this period, from 46.9% in 1996 to 54.3% in 2002. The female participation rate is the second highest in the Dublin Metropolitan Region and is expected to increase further over the next decade. Along with immigration, it will be a main factor contributing to the increase in the labour force over the coming decade.
Education Skills & Specialisation: A breakdown of the labour force by occupational grouping showed that in 2002, 33% cent of people were employed in the two highest skilled categories (professional workers and managerial and technical workers) and only 14% in the two lowest skill groupings (the semi-skilled and unskilled categories). The percentage of the labour force in the high skilled category increased by 6% between 1996 and 2002, while the percentage of the labour force in the two lowest skill categories decreased by 5%. The changing skills profile within the county viz. the upgrading of the workforce, is mirrored in the increase in educational qualifications within the county over the same period.
The level of educational attainment of the population of South Dublin County improved considerably over the period 1996-2002. In 1996, 23% of the county population had only a primary level education and 19% had obtained a third level qualification. By 2002, 22% of the population possessed a third-level qualification, and only 14% had a primary level of education. The county has an excellent education system with well-functioning links between industry, third level institutions, and government. There are 94 primary schools and 32 second-level schools. The provision of third level educational facilities is biased towards Dublin, with 42% of third level facilities and college places located within the region. There is also a vibrant human resource consultancy network operating in the county which may be used to identify and recruit skilled professionals in a range of sectors, including finance, ICT, engineering, and science.
By comparison with the other local authority areas, South Dublin County has the highest percentage of graduates in the categories of (i) computing and information technology, (ii) education, physical sciences and chemistry, and (iii) engineering and architecture. One fifth of all third level qualifications in South Dublin County are in the ‘social sciences, business and law’ category. This reflects the importance of the business services sector as a source of employment in the county. The next most important category is engineering and architecture (with 10.6%), followed closely by medical related qualifications (9.9%) and computing and information technology (7.7%). The occupations that are predicted to experience the greatest growth over the coming years (to 2010) are those of computer professionals, health professionals, childcare, software engineers and business and science professionals.
The Economy: There are an estimated 6,377 businesses in the county. There are 39 industrial estates and 46 business parks and these industrial areas account for 2,241 firms. The National Digital Park is situated in the Citywest campus and is a hub for high-technology communications and electronic commerce companies in Europe. The second major international business park, Grange Castle, is situated in the north west of the county and is a major location for multinational activity. It is home to two of the worlds leading healthcare producers, Wyeth and Takeda.
Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) is an important contributor to the local economy. Multinational corporations are the backbone of the internationally traded sectors (both services and manufacturing) and exert a strong multiplier effect on the rest of the local economy through their influence on local employment and the demand for non-traded services.
Sectoral Information: The growth sectors in the county are biotechnology, pharmaceuticals, metals and engineering, ICT, hospitality, transport and logistics, and internationally traded services. The biotechnology, pharmaceuticals, ICT and metals and engineering sectors are highly export-oriented; these advanced sectors account for more than 60% of manufacturing employment within the county.
Employment is concentrated in the internationally-traded services sector and the non-traded services sector. Agriculture accounts for less than 1% of employment and manufacturing industry for just over 13% of employment. Within the services sector, the wholesale and retail trade and the real estate, renting and business activities categories, are the most important. Other important service sector activities include transport, storage and communications; health and social work; public administration and defence; banking and financial services; and education. The county continues to be the logistics hub of the Dublin Metropolitan Region. Warehousing/logistics firms accounted for 34% of all rateable accounts in 2004 (1,937 out of a total of 5,697 rates). Warehousing and distribution facilities are concentrated in the Tallaght and Clondalkin areas. However, there is evidence of a shift of warehousing and logistics activities to the outer suburbs, to areas such as Newcastle and Rathcoole within the county, and further beyond to counties Fingal and Kildare. With continued economic growth and increasing pressures for space in prime locations, it is likely that warehousing and distribution activities will shift to more peripheral areas, leaving space for more labour-intensive, high-value added service activities in central locations.
In 1996 manufacturing industry accounted for almost one fifth (19.47%) of employment within South Dublin County; however, by 2002 employment in manufacturing declined by 6.4% (from 16,157 in 1996 to 14,390 in 2002). The services sector increased over the same period. However, the manufacturing sector, which is highly export-oriented and highly sophisticated technologically, continues to be vitally important. Along with the internationally traded services sectors, the local economy is dependant upon the output and employment performance of the manufacturing sector. These internationally traded sectors (both manufacturing and services) provide the economic foundation for the development of the non-traded services sectors of the economy and without them employment growth in the public sector and local services will be unsustainable.
Innovation and Enterprise Development The promotion of industry in the county is facilitated by a wide variety of institutions and training organisations, including IDA Ireland, which focuses on the promotion of foreign investment in the Irish economy and its counterpart, Enterprise Ireland, which seeks to foster the development and growth of the domestic industry base. South Dublin County Enterprise Board, the South Dublin Chamber of Commerce and a number of local enterprise centres in Neilstown, Brookfield, Bolbrook, Oldbawn, Killinarden, Bawnogue and Lucan, as well as the Institute of Technology, Tallaght, are also active in the promotion of enterprise. Over the period 2001-2003, local enterprise centres supported 647 start-ups in South Dublin County. The majority of these start-up enterprises were in the services sector and covered a broad spectrum of activities, including software and telecoms, business consultancy, advertising and market research, architectural design, engineering, childcare, transport, catering and recycling.
Regulatory Environment: The regulatory and institutional environment in South Dublin County (as in the rest of the Irish economy) is conducive to wealth and employment creation. The standard rate of corporation tax is 12.5%, which is the lowest rate of corporation tax in Europe. EU membership also allows for the free movement of goods, services, capital and labour within the EU. Recent changes in the 2004 Finance Bill are indicative of the economy’s pro-business environment. In the 2004 Finance Bill, the 9% tax charged on the transfer of intellectual property was abolished, encouraging companies to carry out R&D and/or manage intellectual property in Ireland. The two state agencies, IDA Ireland and Enterprise Ireland, provide a variety of assistance to companies in the form of advice, financial support, management development programmes, and funding for research and development. High levels of government support and extensive linkages between innovative firms and institutions (including educational institutions) have brought considerable benefits to the region.
Local Governance: Local government is implemented through South Dublin County Council, which is the political forum of South Dublin County. The Council has responsibility for a wide number of services/functions, including planning and economic development; housing; transportation; sport, recreation and community development; arts and culture; the development and maintenance of parks; and water, drainage, waste mananagement and environmental services.
From a governance perspective, the establishment of the South Dublin County Development Board in 2000 as part of local Government reform, was a critical development. The Board comprises members of local government, representatives of local development agencies, the social partners (employers, trade unions, farming and the community and voluntary sector), and representatives of the state agencies. It seeks to promote economic, social and cultural development within the county by co-ordinating and integrating the activities of the various institutions and organisations within the county, including the delivery of services by the individual agencies. By integrating the policy-making process and co-ordinating service provision, it provides a key focus for strategic development within the county.
In 2002, the South Dublin County Development Board published the County strategy. The County Strategy was framed after an extensive consultation process involving all stakeholders and reflects the broad consensus as to the future development needs of the County over the period 2002-2012.