These statistics are categorised as a CSO Frontier Series Output. Particular care must be taken when interpreting these statistics as it may use new methods which are under development and/or data sources which may be incomplete, for example new administrative data sources.
Infrastructure plays a fundamental role in the economy and in society and there is increasing demand for infrastructure data to measure economic, environmental and social development. Infrastructure is made up of the stock of existing infrastructure assets plus investment in new assets less depreciation. Infrastructure Accounts are a way to measure these assets within the framework of the National Accounts to answer questions such as:
The CSO is committed to providing new insights to support the information needs of policy makers, businesses and Irish society. This information note builds towards the development of infrastructure accounts for Ireland by showing a breakdown of investment in infrastructure and investment in non-residential construction for 2024 and 2025. To do this, we have tendered for new data sources and consulted with external stakeholders. We are also engaging with an OECD informal Expert Group on Infrastructure (EGI) to develop a common definition and classification of infrastructure assets within the system of national accounts.
The Table below disaggregates investment in infrastructure into classifications guided by the work of the EGI. The table also includes investment in non-residential construction, to make the data comparable with the sum of Roads and Other building and construction in Table 11.1 of the Annual National Accounts. Note that investment in housing, and social housing, are not currently classified to be part of infrastructure. These statistics are under development and feedback on the classifications and sources of data are welcome.
Investment in infrastructure assets totalled €10.2 billion in 2025, in current prices, up from €9.9 billion in 2024. Investment in energy generation, distribution and transmission increased from €1.8 billion in 2024 to €2.3 billion in 2025 while investment in water supply and sanitation was relatively unchanged in current prices. Looking at investment in social infrastructure, investment in education was relatively unchanged between 2024 and 2025 while health investment increased by 4% in current prices. Investment in digital infrastructure, which includes the construction of new data centres and telecoms networks, decreased from €856 million in 2024 to €744 million in 2025.
Future work will focus on further refinement of infrastructure classifications and developing a longer time series to support analysis of investment over time. In parallel, a constant‑price series will be developed using suitable price deflators to allow volume measurements and long‑term comparisons of infrastructure investment. In addition, infrastructure accounts will be developed by estimating the capital stock of infrastructure using appropriate perpetual‑inventory approaches.
Kieran Culhane, kieran.culhane@cso.ie (+353) 1 498 4364
Brian Stanley, brian.stanley@cso.ie (+353) 1 498 4123
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