Ireland’s public relations and communications sector now contributes an estimated €1.9 billion to the economy, which is a 60 per cent jump on the €1.2bn in 2019, the latest annual Public Relations Institute of Ireland (PRII) census indicates. The triennial survey by Amárach Research points to the size, shape, and direction of the business in Ireland.
The number of PR professionals in Ireland is said to have grown to almost 4,000, up from 3,344 in 2022. The average annual salary now stands at €78,000, an 18 per cent increase since 2019. In 2025, 45 per cent of respondents are earning €80,000 or more, and 16 per cent earning under €45,000 a year.
AI skills
In-house public sector PR roles now comprise 42 per cent of the workforce, a sizeable increase from 25 per cent before the Covid pandemic in 2019. While 66 per cent of professionals welcome artificial intelligence (AI), two-thirds cite AI skills as their biggest training gap, and only one in three say that have received any formal training in the discipline.
Only 22 per cent believe PR reflects Ireland’s population diversity, with socio-economic barriers and a white/female-dominated demographic cited as key issues. The report shows that 80 per cent of PR professionals work remotely at least once a week. Four in ten say they would leave their job if required to return to the office more than three days a week.
The findings are based on interviews with 166 PR practitioners in April.
Photo: Dr Martina Byrne, outgoing CEO and Paul Hand, president, PRII
