IRELAND - Medical Device Industry and Demographic Data

Shown below you will find some basic demographic and economic data, plus information specific to the medical device and healthcare industry.

Capital city: Dublin

Total area: 70 000 km²

Population: 4.2 million

Currency: euro

Language: English, Irish

Structure of population:
0-14 years: 20.9%
15-64 years: 67.1%
65 years and over: 12% (2009 est.)

Healthcare expenditure: $3 463 per capita (at int. $ rate, 2007 data)

Number of hospitals: 59 (2004 data)

Healthcare financing: The healthcare financing is in transition. An increasing number of hospitals' financing is based on the annual case-mix budget. Ireland operates a unique ´budget-neutral´ Case-mix policy - any funding saved through efficiencies is reinvested in hospitals which have demonstrated that additional funding allocated to them will result in real benefits. Case-mix is not used to reduce acute hospital funding. Primary healthcare, GPs are paid on a capitation basis according to the patient's age, sex and place of residence.

Medical device industry: Ireland is a small-sized consumer; in 2005 they consumed €83 million (0.3 % of the total EU consumption) in medical devices. Ireland has very strong manufacturing industry since it is one of the most attractive locations for manufacturing. Thirteen of the world's top 25 medical device companies have manufacturing plants there. The medical market is especially concentrated around Dublin and Cork. There are over 100 distributors serving the market but in recent years several of the larger multinational manufacturers based in Ireland have also started to sell direct to end-users. The growth of this market is not expected to be significant due to the small population in Ireland.