Tony Gregory
Question:167 Mr. Gregory asked the Taoiseach the amounts of profit repatriated by foreign owned companies in each year from 1990 to date. [22822/03]
Written Answers. - Fiscal Policy.
Under international standards, the most appropriate indicator of profits earned annually by foreign owned enterprises located in Ireland is the direct investment income on equity outflow, that is, the debit flow, published by the Central Statistics Office in the balance of international payments statistics. Under these standards, all of this earned income is effectively treated as an outflow being repatriated to direct investors whether or not there is an actual cash repatriation.
The relevant figures for the years 1990-2002 are shown in the table below. This table also shows the breakdown of the overall direct investment income on equity attributable to foreign direct investors, that is, the parent enterprises, into: (i) the element distributed by way of dividends or branch cash repatriations; and (ii) the undistributed part of earnings that are reinvested in the Irish enterprises.
Following the recent major overhaul by the CSO of its balance of payments collection and compilation system, the figures shown for the year 1998 onwards are not comparable with the earlier figures for 1990 to 1997. In the earlier period, manufacturing and primarily non-financial foreign-owned enterprises were covered by the statistics. This coverage was extended in 1998 and the figures for 1998 onwards include foreign-owned financial enterprises operating both within and outside the IFSC.
Outflows of Direct Investment Income on Equity of Foreign Owned Enterprises Located in Ireland, 1990-2002:
|
Year |
Direct Investment Income on Equity |
Dividends and Distributed Branch Profits |
Reinvested Earnings |
|
€m |
€m |
€m |
|
|
1990 |
3,310 |
2,807 |
503 |
|
1991 |
3,222 |
2,458 |
764 |
|
1992 |
3,862 |
2,853 |
1,009 |
|
1993 |
4,260 |
3,417 |
843 |
|
1994 |
4,808 |
4,075 |
733 |
|
1995 |
6,594 |
5,009 |
1,585 |
|
1996 |
7,397 |
5,655 |
1,742 |
|
1997 |
9,389 |
7,625 |
1,764 |
|
1998(1) |
14,834 |
10,437 |
4,397 |
|
1999 |
20,438 |
11,677 |
8,762 |
|
2000 |
22,298 |
11,736 |
10,562 |
|
2001 |
25,407 |
15,037 |
10,370 |
|
2002 |
31,739 |
15,251 |
16,488 |
(1)The 1990-1997 series is not comparable with the series from 1998 onwards due to coverage being extended from mainly manufacturing and non-financial service operations in the earlier period to all activity, including that of IFSC enterprises, in the later period.