Press Statement

Preasráiteas

14 May 2021

Go to release: Foreign Direct Investment in Ireland 2019

The Central Statistics Office (CSO) has today (14 May 2021) published Foreign Direct Investment in Ireland 2019.

This Research Publication compliments the 2019 Annual FDI publication with further breakdowns and new innovations for the presentation of macroeconomic investment statistics.

Commenting on the publication, Senior Statistician John Sheridan said: "This experimental research has been developed to further explore different aspects of FDI in Ireland including Greenfield FDI, Ultimate Investment and Redomiciled PLCs. It is intended to give a better understanding of the impact and importance of FDI in Ireland.”

In this year’s publication we renew our prior research on pass-through investment, complementing our analysis on the role of Special Purpose Entities (SPEs) in Ireland’s FDI. It shows that, of the €1,026bn in FDI in Ireland, 31% can be attributed to investment which passes through Ireland en-route to other subsidiaries abroad, highlighting the nature of global investment. FDI Inward figures are further explored through the removal of funds which relate to Intellectual Property and aircraft.

Employment and turnover figures show Irish firm foreign affiliate operations separate to those of Redomiciled PLCs. Native Irish firms have been found to have approximately 93,000 and 62,000 jobs in the UK and the US respectively. The attributes of the Redomiciled PLCs and the effects that these corporate inversions have had on the Irish economy is also explored.

Included in the publication for the first time is analysis on the nature of the relationship between FDI and Goods Exports. Using new filtering methods from our pass-through analysis of FDI to explore any potential relationship.

This is the fourth time the CSO has published this experimental publication linking data across statistical domains. Foreign Direct Investment in Ireland 2019 looks at the role of investment into Ireland, its associated globalisation and its role in the Irish domestic economy. This publication brings together several different data sources designed to complement the annual and quarterly Foreign Direct Investment statistics presented in our International Accounts.”

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