Ireland’s space industry has long flown under the radar at home, even as it quietly built a strong reputation in Europe. The industry has quietly expanded its technical capabilities and commercial footprint, and recent figures suggest that momentum is accelerating.
Ireland has been a member of the European Space Agency (ESA) since 1975, using that membership to build a research base and a growing cluster of specialist companies in areas like satellite communications, Earth observation, data analytics and space-adjacent technologies. That ecosystem has accelerated in the past decade. Enterprise Ireland notes that over 100 Irish companies are now working with ESA on technologies for both institutional and commercial markets, using space capabilities in sectors from agriculture and maritime to transport and security.
More recent figures show the pipeline expanding further: 116 Irish firms had secured ESA contracts by the end of 2024, with numbers rising sharply since the launch of the National Space Strategy for Enterprise 2019–2025.
The economic context is important. The global space economy is forecast to be worth around $1.8 trillion by 2035, according to recent estimates cited by TechCentral, underpinned by demand for connectivity, climate monitoring and security applications. Ireland’s policy bet is that, by specialising in high-value niches rather than launchers or large platforms, its SMEs can capture a meaningful slice of that growth without the cost base of bigger space-faring nations.
The latest numbers from ESA underline that this strategy is starting to pay off. Irish companies secured a record €24 million in ESA contracts in 2024, more than doubling the €9.9 million figure achieved in 2023. For a small country, that is not game-changing money in itself, but it is a useful proxy for capability: ESA contracts are competitive, technically demanding and often open doors to commercial work with larger primes. The fact that 2024 marked Ireland’s highest annual ESA return to date suggests that its firms are moving up the value chain rather than just participating in programmes.
In November 2025, Minister Alan Dillon confirmed that Ireland will invest more than €170 million in ESA programmes between now and 2030, reaffirming its commitment at the ESA Council of Ministers. That contribution is modest in absolute terms but significant relative to Ireland’s size, and it matters because ESA operates on a “geo-return” principle, where member states’ spending is broadly matched by industrial contracts going back to their companies over time.
The strategic question is whether Ireland can convert ESA-driven wins into a resilient domestic space economy. The sector still leans heavily on ESA funding and on Enterprise Ireland supports, and competition from other European SMEs is only intensifying as more countries ramp up their own space ambitions. However, the combination of record ESA contract awards and a multi-year €170 million commitment signals a clear policy direction: Ireland intends to be more than a passive passenger in Europe’s space journey. The next test will be whether Irish firms can leverage that platform into long-term exports, high-skilled jobs and home-grown technologies that matter just as much on the ground as they do in orbit.
