May13Fri

Economic Data on County Galway

NUI Galway and the Whitaker Institute created an online dashboard that provides key economic data on Galway City and the County at-large (http://galwaydashboard.ie).  They produced a number of research papers to supplement the website.

• Economic Baseline Summary Overview(.pdf document)
• Medical Device Sector(.pdf document)

Some snippets:

  • Galway employs one third of the country’s 25,000 medical device employees and the West accounts for 39% of regional distribution of medical device.
  • There is a significant cluster of medical device companies with Medtronic and Boston Scientific being the largest MNC employers.
  • Boston Scientific Ireland Ltd employs 2,800 individuals and Medtronic Vascular Galway Ltd. employs 1,882 individuals.

  • The medical device cluster in Galway occurs through university-industry linkages, a continuous development of a skilled labour pool, international reputation through the success of Boston Scientific and Medtronic, the growth of supplier firms and knowledge transfers establishing new start-ups.
  • The medical device companies within this cluster are supported by such organisations as Enterprise Ireland, IDA Ireland, Udaras na Gaeltachta, Local Enterprise Office Galway, GMIT and NUI Galway.
  • Galway has become recognised for its specialisation in coronary devices.
  • The Department of Mechanical and Biomedical Engineering has given rise to an average of 22 graduates per year since 2003.
  • A BioInnovate team recruited in Galway, focusing on cardiovascular disease identified the need for a vascular support device and technology to improve vascular embolism.
  • REMEDI has recently received €47 million in funding grants for pioneering research initiatives for 36 research projects involving over 200 researchers.
  • GMedTech has obtained over €3.5 million worth of funding for an applied biomedical research project and has developed three cardiovascular type simulators for assessing heart attacks, stroke and aortic aneurysms


• Information and Communications & Technology Sector (.pdf)

Some snippets:

  • There are 196 ICT organisations in Galway.
  • Galway is home to 4 of the top 5 ICT companies – IBM, SAP, Oracle and Cisco.
  • There are 90 ICT organisations in Galway City, as categorised by NACE (Rev.2) Codes, with a further 106 ICT companies based in County Galway.
  • Growing indigenous SME ICT companies have real potential to grow a vibrant ICT cluster.
  • There are 2,229 science, research, engineering and technology professionals in Galway City and County in 2011.
  • There are 917 science, engineering and technology associate professionals in Galway City and County in 2011.
  • Oranmore and Tuam are the top two locations for concentration of science, research, engineering and technology professionals and science, engineering and technology associate professionals in 2011.
  • Some 72.8% of households in the Galway city region have broadband connectivity compared to 63.8% nationally.
  • County Galway has a lower percentage of households with broadband compared to Dublin County with 72.8% and County Cork with 64.7%.
  • Some 84 rural communities in Galway are to get high-quality broadband for the first time.
  • Galway has a foothold in the growing cloud computing market through SMEs.
  • The expiration of The National Broadband Scheme means that there are no longer minimum service standards, minimum speeds, orders and installation standards, fault restoration times, engineer visits or service rebates which will impact on County Galway.
  • There is a significant research infrastructure in Galway City – INSIGHT at NUI Galway.

There is an array of ICT education provision and incubation support.

• Enterprise Innovation & Employment(visual data/mapping)

• More research papers available HERE

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