Fifth of employers consider quitting Dublin to beat spiralling costs

This comes on the back of new figures from the Central Statistics Office showing that property prices continue to rise. While the median, or middle, price for a property nationwide at the moment is €255,000, in Dublin this rises to €364,998.

Speaking to Independent.ie, Gráinne Barry, regional operations director at sports data company Stats, said that cost was a factor in the US-headquartered firm choosing Limerick over Dublin as its EMEA headquarters.

"There were three main factors behind choosing Limerick; availability of talent, the size of the city, and from a cost perspective it is very attractive compared to Dublin," Ms Barry said.

Meanwhile, Susanne Kerins, head of marketing at Cora Systems, a project management solutions company based in Carrick-on-Shannon, said that the company's decision not to locate its main office in Dublin had now turned into an advantage.

"We are finding that people want to move out of the big hubs such as Dublin and London for a better work-life balance and a reduction in their cost of living," Ms Kerins said.

Overall the CPL report finds that there continues to be growth in business sectors which are largely representative of foreign direct investment in Ireland.

IT and telecoms has grown its number of jobs postings by 16pc since the same quarter of last year, while science, engineering and supply chain as a sector had a 9pc growth in the same period.