David Cullinane (Waterford, Sinn Fein)
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64. To ask the Taoiseach if the trade figures for May 2016 as published by the CSO on 12 August 2016, which show an increase of €19.237 billion in the value of Irish industrial exports in 2015, which was a 22.75% increase on the value of Irish industrial exports in 2014, were the source or one of the sources of the distortion in the Irish GDP figure for 2015 that was labelled internationally as "leprechaun economics"; if it is for him to comment on the fact that the total value of Irish exports from January to May 2016 is slightly up on the total value of Irish exports from January to May 2015, which would seem to suggest that there may be a similar distortion in 2016; the county or counties that have benefitted the most from this increased activity from Irish exporters. [25040/16]

Regina Doherty (Meath East, Fine Gael)
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In Ireland's International Trade statistics, the sectors showing significant export growth in 2015 compared to 2014 were:

Organic chemicals (+18%) (+€3.3 billion)

Medical and pharmaceutical products (+36%) (+€8 billion)

Essential oils (+15%) (+€1 billion)

Other transport equipment (including aircraft) (+113%) (+€2.8 billion)

In contrast, the July 2016 trade results shows that exports for the entire chemical sector for the first seven months of 2016 have increased by just 0.3% over the same period in 2015.

Information on exports of goods at county level is not available.

These results from the International Trade statistics are not related to the activities that caused the revisions to the 2015 national accounts statistics.

The International Trade monthly statistics for imports and exports measure goods crossing the national border, whereas national accounts statistics are compiled on a change of economic ownership basis and so include trading activity of Irish entities that takes place outside national borders.

Adjustments are made to the primary trade data (sourced from the International Trade monthly series of imports and exports of goods) to move from the crossing the national border concept to the change of economic ownership concept in the national accounts statistics. Net additions for contract manufacturing are the most significant of these adjustments.

The revisions to the 2015 national accounts statistics for Ireland were driven by the relocation of entire balance sheets to Ireland, with consequential activities leading to a level shift in the economic activity attributed to Ireland. The additional economic activity attributed to Ireland was primarily due to contract manufacturing.

Contract manufacturing occurs where a company in Ireland engages a company abroad to manufacture products on its behalf (and vice versa). These products could be either new products or products formerly produced by the Irish company.

The inputs used in this production process remain in the ownership of the Irish company. The foreign contract manufacturer supplies a manufacturing service to the Irish company and never takes ownership of the product being produced.

Once the production cycle is completed for the product, it is then sold to a customer abroad and a change of economic ownership takes place between Ireland and the country of the buyer. At this stage, the value added (export value less cost of inputs) is recorded in the Irish national accounts statistics as an export as required under the change of economic ownership concept applicable for those statistics.

However, this transaction is not included in the International Trade monthly series of imports and exports of goods as the goods do not cross the national border.