Software Engineer Salary in Ireland: Pay, Employer Costs and Europe Comparison

What software engineers earn in Ireland

The Central Statistics Office (CSO) does not publish a pay figure for software engineers alone. The closest official measure is the information and communication sector, which includes computer programming and IT services, telecoms and publishing, and covers every role in those firms, from graduate developers to directors. In 2025, median annual earnings in the sector were €83,329 and mean annual earnings were €104,948, according to the CSO's analysis of Revenue payroll data released on 6 October 2026. That is 1.8 times the €46,305 median across all employments.

The median rose 4.0% from €80,147 in 2024. Men in the sector had a median of €89,196 and women €72,271. The figures count employments, not people, and leave out employments active for fewer than 50 weeks of the year, so they describe people paid for a full year.

For a more recent reading, the CSO's quarterly earnings survey put average weekly earnings in information and communication at €1,730.61 in Q2 2026 (preliminary), up 3.4% in a year and the highest of any sector. The all-sector average was €1,046.88. Quarterly figures move around: the same sector averaged €1,846.81 in Q1 2026. Multiplied by 52, the Q2 2026 weekly figure is about €89,992 a year (our calculation). Since Q1 2026 the survey uses the new NACE Rev. 2.1 classification, in which the sector appears as J-K.

For job seekers, the median is a fairer anchor than the mean: a smaller number of very high earners pull the mean up to €104,948. Senior and specialist engineers usually sit above the sector median, and junior roles below it.

How Ireland compares in Europe

On Eurostat's Structure of Earnings Survey, the most recent comparable survey across countries, professionals in the Irish information and communication sector earned a mean of €90,905 gross in 2022, in firms with 10 or more employees. That was 58.0% above the EU 27 level of €57,522, 3.0% above Denmark (€88,248), 16.3% above Germany (€78,189) and 31.5% above the Netherlands (€69,120). The percentages are our calculation. The survey groups all professionals in the sector together; Eurostat publishes no separate figure for ICT professionals for 2022. The UK is not in the survey.

Ireland also has a deep pool: Eurostat estimates 172,400 ICT specialists were employed there in 2025, or 6.2% of everyone in work, against 5.0% across the EU.

What an employer pays on top

Employer PRSI, Ireland's social insurance contribution, is 11.40% of pay for employees earning more than €552 a week, from 1 October 2026; it was 11.25% before that date. gov.ie lists no upper earnings limit for it. Since 1 January 2026, staff aged 23 to 60 who earn €20,000 or more and have no workplace pension are enrolled in the state auto-enrolment scheme, with an employer contribution of 1.5% of gross pay in years 1 to 3, rising to 6% from year 10, and no contributions on pay above €80,000.

On a salary of €83,329, the sector median, that comes to €9,499.51 in employer PRSI at 11.40% and €1,200 in auto-enrolment (1.5% of the first €80,000), for a total of €94,028.51 a year (our calculation). An employer that already offers a qualifying pension pays into that scheme instead. The CSO's quarterly survey shows the same gap at sector level: in Q2 2026, hourly total labour costs in information and communication were €61.40, against hourly earnings of €46.88.

Hiring a software engineer in Ireland remotely

Ireland keeps the same clock as the UK, which makes it an easy fit for London teams, and English is the working language. For US companies it is one of the higher-cost markets in Europe, as the comparison above shows.

We do placement. We source, screen and interview remote software engineers and other professionals from a network of 1,000,000+ European remote professionals, then deliver a shortlist of 3 vetted candidates within 21 days for a flat $6,500, or your deposit back. Every placement carries a 12-month replacement guarantee. See how placement works.

Prefer to run the search yourself? Post a job for $299; it stays live for 60 days.

Euro Remote Talent is not an employer of record. We find and shortlist the candidate, and you employ them through your own Irish entity, an employer of record or a genuine contractor agreement.

Looking for a role yourself? Browse remote jobs in Ireland or see our Land a Great Remote Job program.

Method note

Annual figures come from the CSO's Earnings Analysis using Administrative Data Sources, built from Revenue employee tax data (PMOD) and counting employments rather than people. Weekly and hourly figures come from the CSO's quarterly Earnings and Labour Costs survey; Q2 2026 is a preliminary estimate. The cross-country table uses Eurostat's 2022 Structure of Earnings Survey, mean annual gross earnings, for firms with 10 or more employees. All figures cover the whole sector or occupation group, not software engineers alone. Annualised weekly pay, employer cost and percentage gaps are our calculations from the published figures.

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• Average salary in Ireland
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• Minimum wage in Ireland
• Software engineer salaries in Europe, compared by country
• Remote engineering jobs open to people in Europe