Pearse Doherty (Donegal South West, Sinn Fein)
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235. To ask the Minister for Finance the gross national income for the past five years if redomiciled public limited companies had been excluded; the amount by which Ireland’s contribution to the European Union budget would have been reduced if these redomiciled public limited companies were excluded from the figures for these years. [32941/15]

Michael Noonan (Limerick City, Fine Gael)
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Research conducted by inter alia the ESRI has highlighted the relatively recent phenomenon whereby a number of large multinational corporations have re-located their corporate headquarters to Ireland. Typically, this does not involve the shift of substantive activity to Ireland or liability for tax. However, it does mean that corporate income on worldwide activity is recorded as a credit (an income inflow) on the Irish current account, improving the balance. These such companies are regularly referred to as "re-domiciled PLCs".

Central Statistics Office (CSO) estimates of the net effect on primary income in the current account of the Irish Balance of Payments of these re-domiciled PLCs are set out in the table below. These are also the amounts that contribute to Irish net factor income in the National Accounts, and consequently Gross National Income (GNI).

The relative level of a Member State's GNI vis-a-vis that of other Member States is the most important determinant of its contribution towards the EU budget. The table below also sets out the impact of these re-domiciled PLCs on Ireland's annual EU budget contributions, as estimated by my Department based upon the most recent data. The Deputy will be aware that the use of GNI as a contribution key favours Ireland, as unlike other countries this is significantly lower than our GDP.

It is important to stress that Irish GNP/GNI statistics are produced to meet required international standards and that these companies are correctly included in Ireland's National Accounts and Balance of Payments statistics under the standards set by the UN, the IMF, Eurostat and the ECB. Any estimates of GNP or GNI excluding these companies are not official statistics and have no legal status.

Source: CSO except for the estimated impact on EU contributions, which is a Department of Finance estimate.