Galway remains in the top five counties for disposable income – but the average worker here still has almost €3,500 less to splash around than their Dublin counterparts.

That’s according to figures released this week by the Central Statistics Office (CSO) which show the average disposable income per person in Galway for 2023 was €28,971 – that is the amount left from income after taxes are taken and State supports are factored in.

That figure was €32,392 in the Capital which tops the leaderboard, ahead of Cork, Limerick and Tipperary, in that order, which all have an average of between €29,000 and €30,000.

The County Incomes and Regional GDP 2022-2023 report also showed that Galway City and County accounted for 6% of Ireland’s total workforce – the third-highest proportion in the country after Dublin and Cork.

In a breakdown of regional breakdown, the largest proportion of employment in the West was in the Public admin, education and health sectors where 27.3% of the workforce were employed.

This was closely followed by ‘distribution, transport, hotels and restaurants’ which accounted for 24.4% of workers in the West.

Industry, excluding construction, employed 15.6%, but was the largest contributor to GDP overall, making up for 41.2% of the West’s economy.

Professional, admin and support jobs employed 8.2% of the region’s workers, while the construction industry was 6.4%.

The CSO states in their report that while there was a degree of uncertainty, the gap between the lowest and highest-income counties widened significantly from 2022 to 2023 – there was over €10,000 in the difference between Dublin this time around, an increase of €1,597.

Pictured: Happy days…crowds at Neachtains bar at the corner of Cross Street and Quay Street.