Experts says that Dublin’s Second Lockdown will be a huge threat to Ireland’s economy

Economists says that thousands of jobs in Dublin will be at stake of risk due to the wide lockdown. The lion share of the state’s economy is managed by Dublin.

Dublin host a third of all jobs and a major portion of Ireland’s economic performance. In 2018, the Central Statistics Office said Dublin created €130bn in output, or 43pc of the State’s total.

Austin Hughes, KBC Ireland chief economist said that imposing another lockdown in Dublin will make a negative impact on the nation’s economy.

He said that “It would be economically very difficult.”

“The density of Dublin and intensity of economic movements mean that the economic hit would be much larger for a given scale of lockdown,” he said.

He also added that the economic hit would be felt not only just by the city, but nationwide because of Dublin’s role as the central hub of economic activity.

Hughes believe that instead of a lockdown the authorities must look for a parallel effective solution to control the virus spread. This can be done by concreting the rules on social distancing and other measures.

“Wider lockdown is probably too blunt an instrument at this point,” he said.

The economist said that the capital city had lost 35,000 during the initial lockdown period, which was from March-May.

“Any significant second lockdown would mean you’ll see a hit to employment running into several thousand. It would have a knock-on impact on the rest of the economy,” he said.

Other experts like Mac Coille, Davy chief economist also shared similar view point. He also said that a new lockdown in Dublin could have a much more severe economic impact than the lockdowns in other counties.

He also said that the lockdown won’t hurt the GDP rates much, instead it could create a lot of unemployment. This is because the areas most exposed – retail and hospitality, including restaurants and pubs – are big employers but modest contributors to GDP.

“You’d be closing down the retail and hospitality sectors again,” Mr Mac Coille said.

He believes that those already struggling would be affected the worst.

“For the all-important technology and ICT sectors, clearly people can continue working from home. Since people are established working from home, particularly in the high value-added sectors, the impact on GDP and tax revenues would be small,” he said.