This article provides estimates of the effective tax rates in Ireland for the 1995-2017 period. We use these aggregate tax indicators to compare the developments in the Irish tax policy mix with the rest of the European Union countries and investigate any potential relation with Ireland’s macroeconomic performance. Our findings show that distortionary taxes, e.g. on factors of production, are significantly lower while less distortionary taxes, e.g. on consumption, are higher in Ireland than most European countries. Thus, the distribution of tax burden falls relatively more on consumption and to a lesser extent on labour than capital; while in the EU average the norm is the opposite. The descriptive analysis indicates that this shift in the Irish tax policy mix is correlated with the country’s strong economic performance.