The latest Dóchas Worldview Research paints a picture of a distinctly globally-minded Ireland. While Ireland’s European neighbours draw inward, Irish public support for overseas aid and concern about global poverty remain relatively robust. Still, the new findings reveal increasing economic anxiety, with some knock-on effects on the public’s global outlook.
For example, looking at this new data alongside DEL’s findings for Great Britain, Germany and France, we see that Ireland hasn’t been immune to growing public disengagement from issues related to global poverty (now standing at 18% of the public – a new peak). Still, the Irish public have managed to by and large resist the pull of indifference felt elsewhere in Europe: In November 2025, DEL found record or near-record levels of disengagement in all three countries: 38% of Britons, 33% of French respondents and 29% of Germans were Totally Disengaged. In each case, disengagement increased substantially over the course of 2025.
The Irish public are still significantly more engaged than their neighbours, and while it may appear attitudes in Ireland towards diversity have become less positive and concern about minority rights has declined, this appears to be driven mostly by the already-disengaged segment of the public, and to the lesser extent those termed by Worldview as ‘Empathisers.’ While the Empathisers are largely supportive of ODA (77 percent) they are disengaged from issues around global poverty. As they are the largest segment, making up 26 percent of the population, it’s important to note that the other engagement segments of the Irish population haven’t experienced the same decline in concern about minority rights or diversity.
Recent research from The Hope and Courage Collective also suggests that perceived anti-immigrant, anti-minority rhetoric in the Irish discourse is largely driven by a loud but small and politically unpopular far-right minority. Despite their unpopularity in polls, it’s clear these voices are using widespread public economic insecurity to try and shape the conversation, particularly among those less engaged with global issues.
Taken together, the findings suggest Ireland remains compassionate and outward-looking in principle, despite increasing preoccupation with economic pressures.
Domestic issues dominate public attention
The issues Irish people consider most important remain overwhelmingly domestic, reflecting cost of living and housing crises realities. Housing costs, household bills, health services and homelessness continue to dominate public concern, according to the latest Worldview findings. While immigration remains a significant issue, this has fallen compared with 2025 and once again driven by Disengaged and Empathiser segments, suggesting cost-of-living pressures are likely the root cause. This is true elsewhere in Europe, and the decline in concern about immigration points to the possibility that the public are beginning to realise that migrants aren’t responsible for their economic woes.
More global concerns reflect a similar pattern. War, conflict and terrorism now rank among the leading concerns, alongside economic insecurity and immigration. Concern about technology and artificial intelligence has also risen noticeably.
Ireland is not alone in this shift. Across Europe, economic concerns have become increasingly dominant. In France, economic crises, wages and job security are now the public’s foremost concern, while economic insecurity remains among the top issues in both Germany and Great Britain. The Dóchas findings therefore reflect a broader European trend in which economic uncertainty is crowding out attention to longer-term global challenges.
Support for development remains resilient
Despite these trends, support for international development remains remarkably strong in Ireland, with possible lessons to be learned for communicators elsewhere.
Nearly two-thirds of Irish respondents remain concerned about poverty in developing countries, and large majorities continue to believe that overseas aid is important: 74 percent of the public believe that Irish ODA makes a positive difference to developing countries.
When the framing of the statements is more financially or economically focused, however, we see some signs of erosion, likely due again to the rising cost of living. There, support for increasing aid spending has softened, while the proportion favouring reductions has edged upwards. Agreement that citizens have a moral obligation to personally support ODA has also declined, again likely shaped by cost of living concerns.
Again, these trends mirror shifts elsewhere in Europe, even if Irish attitudes toward aid remain distinctly positive. France experienced a sharp six-point fall in support for maintaining or increasing aid spending in late 2025, reaching the lowest level recorded since DEL began tracking public opinion. Germany has seen support stabilise at a lower level than pre-2022, while just under half of people in Great Britain now support maintaining or increasing aid spending.
The Irish picture is therefore best understood as part of a wider European cooling of enthusiasm for aid spending in response to broader public distress about economic conditions, namely when the public are asked about international cooperation as a financial ‘trade-off’ with domestic needs.
Ireland leads in closing the gap on disconnect in perception of climate impacts
The research in Ireland shows a regionally-consistent disconnect between the impact of climate change on ‘you personally’ vs. future generations, with greater impact perceived down the road and in other countries. That said, in Ireland, only 10 percent of the public say they have not experienced any impacts from climate change to date, a remarkable departure from elsewhere on the continent. Also, there was a jump of eight percentage points (from 6 percent of the Irish public to 14 percent) since 2023 findings in those who foresee greater climate impacts in only three years’ time. Possibly, this foreshadows a wider realisation across Europe that climate’s impacts are nearer than we thought.
Elsewhere, DEL data show declining concern about climate change in both Germany and France, despite widespread recognition that it remains a major global challenge. Across Europe, climate change increasingly appears to be viewed as important but distant.
The challenge for the sector, importantly, is not overcoming hostility. It is preventing gradual, possibly temporary disengagement from becoming permanent, namely by demonstrating how global issues connect to everyday lives and values.
For development organisations, this presents a significant communications challenge. Climate change and global poverty are increasingly interconnected, but public understanding of those links remains limited. The Worldview research suggests focusing on the medium-term impacts to households may nudge the public toward a clearer understanding of climate’s immediacy.
What makes Ireland different?
While Ireland shares many of the same trends visible in Great Britain, France and Germany, one difference stands out.
The DEL research primarily highlights declining engagement with development issues, lower levels of charitable action and softening support for aid. The Dóchas findings offer a more nuanced understanding of the societal knock-on effects of rising economic concerns and public angst about the cost of living.
The decline in concern for minority rights, less positive attitudes towards diversity, and a growing proclivity for cutting budgets that don’t spend money at home all point toward insecurity that is not a result of development, but can ultimately show up in attitudes toward development, migration, climate action and global solidarity alike. This is an important finding for communicators everywhere: connecting the dots for the public between cost of living anxieties at home, global economic inequality and extreme poverty is a promising way of establishing a wider lens of public support.
The challenge ahead
The Worldview report does not suggest that Irish people have stopped caring about global poverty, climate change or international development. Rather, findings show how economic uncertainty, rising cost of living and global instability shape public priorities. As people focus on more ‘immediate’ concerns, engagement with international issues reflects those anxieties, even if globally-minded values remain steadfast, lying in wait.
The good news is that the foundations remain strong. Most Irish people still believe aid works, still care about poverty in developing countries and still support Ireland playing a role in addressing global challenges. So the challenge for the sector, importantly, is not overcoming hostility. It is preventing gradual, possibly temporary disengagement from becoming permanent, namely by demonstrating how global issues connect to everyday lives and values.
If the findings from Ireland, Great Britain, France and Germany tell us anything, it is that this challenge is not unique to one country. Standing up for global solidarity in the face of economic and geopolitical instability is one of the defining communications challenges facing the development sector across the countries we survey.
