On Wednesday (7 January), the Irish Government published a new Sectoral Capital Plan for 2026–2030, committing €4.7 billion in capital funding to enterprise, innovation, tourism and regional development over the next five years, as part of the revised National Development Plan framework.
At its core, the plan seeks to strengthen Ireland’s enterprise and industrial base by combining support for indigenous firms with renewed efforts to attract high-value foreign direct investment. Funding is concentrated on areas the department believes will have the greatest long-term impact: advanced manufacturing, innovation capacity, regional enterprise infrastructure and decarbonisation. The scale of the investment marks a significant statement of intent. As reported by the Business Post, Enterprise Minister Peter Burke has described the plan as “transformative” for Ireland’s economic future, framing it as a move towards more strategic, long-term capital investment rather than incremental spending.
One of the most striking elements is the focus on large-scale inward investment. The plan provides for the development of so-called “next-generation sites” capable of hosting major manufacturing projects in sectors such as semiconductors and biopharma. These sites, significantly larger than traditional IDA industrial parks, reflect the reality that competition for global investment is increasingly shaped by land availability, energy capacity and planning readiness, not just tax or labour costs.
Alongside this, the plan places substantial emphasis on indigenous enterprise, with expanded funding for Enterprise Ireland programmes aimed at entrepreneurship, scaling and export growth. This reflects a broader policy objective to reduce Ireland’s reliance on a small number of multinational firms for corporation tax receipts, while building a deeper base of Irish-owned companies with international reach.
Innovation and commercialisation are another central pillar. Significant capital is allocated to research infrastructure, technology centres and the translation of research into market-ready products, particularly in areas such as advanced manufacturing and artificial intelligence. Ireland’s continued engagement with EU-level initiatives, including the European Space Agency and other collaborative industrial programmes, is positioned as a way of embedding Irish firms more deeply in European innovation ecosystems.
Beyond enterprise and innovation, the plan also includes major allocations for tourism development and industrial decarbonisation, signalling an attempt to balance economic growth with climate and sustainability objectives. Given that 2025 saw tourism levels drop by 6% compared to 2024, costing the economy almost €700m, this is a welcome boost for the industry. The investment in energy efficiency and renewable adoption is framed not just as a climate measure, but as a competitiveness issue for Irish industry in an increasingly carbon-constrained global market. Strategically, the Sectoral Capital Plan fits within a wider shift in Irish public investment policy, where capital spending is increasingly used as an instrument of industrial strategy rather than simply infrastructure.
The real test will be delivery. While the €4.7 billion envelope is substantial by Irish standards, its impact will depend on execution, coordination across agencies and the extent to which public funding succeeds in crowding in private investment. If it does, the plan could play a meaningful role in shaping Ireland’s economic model for the next decade.
