Executive Summary Grant Thornton’s research into the economic impact of Design and Craft in the Irish economy has identified a series of key findings which show the sector to be vibrant, productive, and delivering economic and social impacts across Ireland. Craft and Design are high value and growing The Craft and Design-Intensive sectors generated €2.9 billion in Gross Value Added* (GVA) in 2019. This value has grown by 111% (i.e. from €1.4 billion) since the last time the sector’s impact was measured, in 2012. Enterprises classified as ‘Design in other sectors’ contributed a further €17.7 billion, an increase from €5.1 billion in 2012. In total, over €53 billion of turnover was generated by enterprises across all three sectoral definitions. This would be equivalent to 6.7% of Ireland’s total business turnover of €794.7 billion in 2018.
The scale of the Design and Craft sectors is growing In 2019, there were 105,000 people employed across the Craft and Design economy (Craft, Design-Intensive and Design in other sectors), an increase of 39,000 from 2012. This makes the sector broadly equivalent to the information and communication sector (107,256) and similar to the construction sector (144,521). Between 2012 and 2019, the number of enterprises engaged in Design-Intensive and Craft activities rose 6.6% to over 18,000. If the Craft and Design economy, as defined in this report, were considered to be one sector, it would be the 8th largest in Ireland by number of enterprises and 10th largest by number of employees.
* Gross Value Added (GVA) is conceptually the same aggregate as Gross Domestic Product (GDP). They both measure the added value generated in an economy by the production of goods and services. The difference between the two concepts is that GDP is measured after including product taxes (e.g. excise duties, non-deductible VAT, etc.) and deducting product subsidies while GVA is measured prior to adding product taxes but includes product subsidies.
Craftspeople and Designers are highly productive In 2019, the 54,000 people employed in the Craft and Design-Intensive sectors contributed over €150,000 in turnover per employee and over €53,000 in GVA per employee. The Design-Intensive sectors, in particular, were highly productive, with turnover per employee of €200,000 and GVA per employee of €72,000. This compares favourably with other sectors such as construction and real estate. The value of Design in driving productivity and innovation across other sectors is highlighted by the €346,000 GVA per employee, making it the second highest detailed sector, ahead of information and communication and behind manufacturing only.
Craft and Design support a wide footprint of other businesses in Ireland As well as generating significant returns directly through their own output, Craft and Design enterprises provide a further indirect and induced benefit to the economy, and wider society, through employment, wages and other expenditure generated by downstream industries and employees of those businesses. This sees the total economic contribution of the sector increase to €3.6 billion from €2.3 billion in 2020 when accounting for an additional €0.8 billion of indirect benefits and €0.5 billion of induced benefits. Economic Impact Assessment of the Design and Craft Sectors in Ireland
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