AmCham's Budget 2026 Update

In Budget 2026, announced this week, it was confirmed that the Research and Development (R&D) tax credit will increase from 30 percent to 35 percent.

This was a key ask in AmCham’s Pre-Budget submission, ‘Ireland 2026: Bridging Economies, Leading Change’. Speaking following the announcement, AmCham CEO, Paul Sweetman said: “This increase will be crucial in continuing to attract high-value research investment and enable Ireland to remain a top-tier location for research, development and innovation in the long term.”

AmCham believes that R&D tax credit has been pivotal in encouraging many companies to consider Ireland as an investment location for research, development and innovation.

In a recent AmCham survey, while 90 percent of respondents said that Ireland’s research and development landscape is competitive when compared to other advanced global economies, 100 percent of respondents said that the further enhancement of Ireland’s R&D tax credit is important to maintaining our competitiveness for FDI.

In further enhancing the R&D landscape for business, Budget 2026 includes a commitment to publish an R&D compass in the coming weeks that will "consider targeted changes to the Research and Development Tax Credit to better align with industry practices, for example in the areas of outsourcing and qualifying expenditure definitions.”

Paul Sweetman said: “AmCham has consistently advocated for the creation of a new subcontracting cap of 100% of internal R&D spend, and for the recognition of agency staff working under a company’s control as internal R&D expenditure. Targeted changes to qualifying expenditure definitions as part of the R&D compass will be important in this regard.”

Overall, it was positive to see a number of key AmCham priorities reflected in Budget 2026.

Other key announcements in relation to Ireland’s taxation system include the expansion of the geographic scope of the participation exemption to include jurisdictions where non-refundable withholding taxes apply and providing for a number of technical amendments to improve the operation of the relief as well as a 5 year extension of the Special Assignee Relief Programme (SARP).

In terms of critical infrastructure, Budget 2026, will facilitate €5bn in capital investment in housing, in addition to investments made by the Land Development Agency and Approved Housing Bodies. The Budget also committed €12.2bn for water and wastewater services, with €1.4bn to be designated for Uisce Éireann to support housing delivery.

In its Budget submission, AmCham made a number of key recommendations with regard to the acceleration of transport infrastructure across the country.

Paul Sweetman said: “Transport infrastructure, alongside connectivity, and balanced regional development is a key driver of economic growth.

The announcement of €2bn to progress the MetroLink, a commitment to continue the rollout of Dart+, Bus Connects Programmes and the Cork Area Commuter Rail, as well as the announcement of a new Dublin-Derry airlink reflect key asks in AmCham’s Budget 2026 submission. This will advance national and regional transport infrastructure and balanced air connectivity.”

You can read AmCham’s 2026 Pre-Budget submission here

You can view AmCham’s full analysis of Budget 2026 here