Ireland

Narrative updated for the September 2026 edition.

Ireland slips one place to 23rd at 3.75 (June: 3.88). The paradox is unchanged: a top-seven developer density (4.36, pillar 6.84) and the EU's fourth-highest desktop Linux share (4.98%), next to a private-sector pillar of exactly zero. Of the 489 measured .ie domains, 80% are hosted outside the EU, 75% on US-controlled providers (Cloudflare 32%, Amazon 18%, Microsoft 7%) and 3% on UK providers; 84% route email through non-EU providers. Dublin hosts the European data centres of AWS, Google and Microsoft, so Irish domains often run on Irish soil under US control; the index scores by the company that owns the network. The public pillar is 4.44: www.gov.ie is served by Amazon, www.president.ie and www.dublincity.ie by Cloudflare.

Strengths

• Developer ecosystem (6.84, 7th).
• Desktop Linux at 4.98% (4th).

Weaknesses

• Private-sector hosting: 0.00, the lowest possible. Domestic hosting is led by the Irish Government's own network, Blacknight and Hetzner.
• Public sector (4.44). The three official sites rate 0.67, 0.33 and 0.33.
• Sovereign browser share of 11.15% (23rd).

Outlook

Ireland's private pillar is structural and will stay near zero. The public pillar is a choice: the government's own network already hosts 11 of the measured sites and could host the three official ones.

Historical context

2020 baseline

In 2020, Ireland was a "laggard," a position dictated by its unique economic role as the European home for major US tech firms. This resulted in a complete absence of any formal open source policy.

2024 progression

There has been a moderate increase in OSS usage, driven by a shift towards reusable digital solutions. The establishment of the Open Ireland Network (OIN) in 2021 provides a crucial community hub, but formal government recognition remains limited.

Historischer Verweis

OSOR-Datenblatt (PDF, 2024) — der länderbezogene Open-Source-Politikbericht, der in der zurückgezogenen Säule „Öffentliche Politik“ von EDRIX 1.0 verwendet wurde.