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Business in Ireland 2016

Multinationals: An Irish Perspective

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Multinationals play an important role in the economies of many countries. Increasingly, multinationals create a physical presence in several countries around the world in order to maximise their global earnings.

This chapter presents statistics on the activities of the affiliates of Irish multinationals abroad and the contribution made by the affiliates of Foreign multinationals in Ireland. See Tables 7.1, 7.2 and 7.3 at the end of this section for more detail on the data in the graphs.

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Figure 7.1 Employment in Irish affiliates abroad, 2016

Figure 7.1 Employment in Irish affiliates abroad, 2016

  • In terms of employment in Irish multinationals abroad by continent, Europe, Asia and America each accounted for approximately a third of the total
  • Employment in the remaining regions amounted to 2.5%

Figure 7.2 Irish MNEs abroad and foreign MNEs in Ireland, 2016

‌Figure 7.2 Irish MNEs abroad and foreign MNEs in Ireland, 2016

  • ‌In 2016, Irish multinationals employed over 856,000 persons in Foreign affiliates and generated Turnover of €192.6 billion
  • By contrast, Foreign multinationals employed just over 293,100 persons in affiliates in Ireland and generated Turnover of €345.0 billion
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  • In 2016, Irish multinationals abroad had turnover in excess of €192bn
  • The US and UK affiliates accounted for 58% of all turnover
For long labels below use
to display on multiple lines		Turnover
United
States		37.1
United
Kingdom		20.8
France3.7
Germany3.7
Other
countries		34.6
  • There were over 856,000 persons employed in Irish multinationals abroad
  • More than one third (36%) of all employment in Irish multinationals abroad was based in the US and the UK
For long labels below use
to display on multiple lines		Persons engaged
United
States		23.2
United
Kingdom		12.4
China3.4
Germany2.8
Other
countries		58.2
2016
United States198668
United Kingdom106126
China29198
Germany24213
France23488
Spain17815
Italy17673
Netherlands16552
Mexico15606
Canada13540
  • Apart from the US and UK, there were significant numbers of persons engaged in Irish owned foreign affiliates across the globe, with 29,000 employees in China and over 24,000 in Germany
2016
United States71.5
United Kingdom40.1
France7.2
Germany7.1
Netherlands6.4
Poland4
Canada3.8
Italy3.4
Spain3.2
Belgium2.4
  • Irish owned enterprises in the US and the UK generated turnover of €71.5 billion and €40.1 billion respectively
  • Irish owned enterprises in France and Germany also generated a significant amount of turnover in 2016; each country reported turnover in excess of €7 billion
  • Services, which includes Distribution, was the dominant sector for employment in Irish affiliates abroad in 2016 accounting for 84.2% of total persons engaged
  • Manufacturing affiliates accounted for 15.2% of employment
  • Other Industrial and Construction sectors employed 0.5% and 0.1% respectively
For long labels below use
to display on multiple lines		Persons engaged
Manufacturing15.2
Other industrial0.5
Construction0.1
Services84.2
  • Most Turnover for Irish affiliates abroad came from the Services sector (82.4%)
  • The Manufacturing sector accounted for a significant share of total Turnover (15.3%)
For long labels below use
to display on multiple lines		Turnover
Manufacturing15.3
Other industrial2
Construction0.3
Services82.4
Turnover
Services46.5
Distribution35.9
Manufacturing15.3
Other Industrial2
Construction0.3
  • The Services sector had the largest share of turnover generated by Irish affiliates abroad at 46.5%
  • The Distribution sector accounted for nearly 36% of turnover, while Manufacturing accounted for over 15%
  • The rest of the sectoral activities combined were responsible for just over 2% of total turnover 
ServicesManufacturing
Irish74.824.8
British38.140.5
French51.836.8
German57.441.3
Italian29.257.3
00
EU-2850.741
  • Figures for Irish-owned multinationals outside the EU show that the Services sector generated 74.8% of all turnover compared to 24.8% for Manufacturing
  • Irish, German and French owned multinationals each had over the EU average of 50.7% of their turnover from Services
  • Italy and Germany generated more turnover from Manufacturing than the EU average
Table 7.1 Turnover and number of persons engaged in Irish-owned foreign affiliates, 2016

Table 7.2 Turnover and number of persons engaged in Irish-owned foreign affiliates by sector, 2016

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The Financial and Insurance sector is excluded from this section. Accordingly, all the measures below relate to the non-financial business economy only (which encompasses the broad sectors of Industry, Services, Distribution and Construction).

20152016
Number of enterprises1.31.1
Persons engaged22.220.3
Turnover56.453.5
GVA63.358.8
  • Foreign-owned enterprises accounted for 58.8% of total GVA and 53.5% of total Turnover in the Irish non-financial business economy in 2016
  • Despite such large contributions to GVA and Turnover, foreign-owned enterprises accounted for just 1.1% of the total number of enterprises in the Irish business economy 
  • Foreign-owned enterprises accounted for one fifth (20.3%) of persons engaged in the Irish business economy
  • In 2016, the contribution of Foreign-owned enterprises to the Irish business economy had decreased from 63.3% in 2015 to 58.8% of GVA 
20152016
Number of enterprises3.92.8
Persons engaged41.735.8
Turnover8682
GVA89.285.3
  • The Industry sector in particular was dominated by foreign-owned enterprises in 2016, with 82.0% of Turnover and 85.3% of GVA, the bulk of which came from enterprises that were owned outside the EU
  • There were 497 foreign owned enterprises in the Industrial sector, which represented just 2.8% of all enterprises in the Industrial sector but accounted for 35.8% of persons engaged
20152016
Number of enterprises1.81.7
Persons engaged24.523.4
Turnover32.829.8
GVA36.433.4
  • In the Distribution sector, which includes Retail & Wholesale Trade, just 810 or 1.7% of all enterprises were foreign-owned
  • These foreign-owned enterprises employed nearly one quarter, 23.4%, of all persons engaged in this sector and contributed over 33% of total GVA
20152016
Number of enterprises1.31
Persons engaged18.116.6
Turnover43.247.7
GVA38.936.9
  • Just 1.0% of all Services enterprises in Ireland were foreign owned but they employed one sixth (16.6%) of persons engaged in the sector
  • These foreign owned enterprises accounted for almost half (47.7%) of total Turnover and 36.9% of total GVA
  • EU owned services enterprises accounted for 56.9% of all foreign owned enterprises and 49.9% of employees, while 76.1% of Turnover and 70.8% of GVA came from enterprises owned outside the EU 
Gross Value Added
Ireland58.7
Hungary52.5
Luxembourg47.6
Slovakia45.8
Romania43.9
Czech Republic41.8
Latvia33.5
Bulgaria32.7
Poland29.9
United Kingdom29.6
Lithuania28.2
Netherlands28.1
Sweden27.5
Belgium27.1
Austria26.9
Estonia26.4
Slovenia26.3
Croatia25.3
EU2824.5
Portugal24
Malta22.3
Spain21.9
Denmark21.5
Finland21.1
Germany20.1
France16.41
Italy15.2
Greece13.7
Cyprus12.8
  • Ireland had the highest rate in the EU28 for Gross Value Added contributions from Foreign-owned enterprises to the overall non-financial economy in 2015 (58.7% of total GVA)
  • This compares to the EU28 average of 24.5% for 2015
  • Other high-ranking countries included Hungary (52.5%), Luxembourg (47.6%) and Slovakia (45.8%) respectively
7.3 Structural business statistics by sector and nationality of ownership, 2016

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