Peadar Tóibín (Meath West, Aontú)
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2435. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine the amount of profit from the agricultural sector repatriated abroad. [18124/21]

Charlie McConalogue (Donegal, Fianna Fail)
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The amount of funds repatriated abroad by companies operating in Ireland is included in the international accounts produced by the Central Statistics Office (CSO). According to the CSO, “users often refer to primary income as repatriated profits of multinationals based in Ireland”. In 2020, the primary income included in the Current, Capital and Financial Account Balances was €89 billion, comprising €182.4 billion of outflows and €93.4 billion of inflows. The CSO does not give a breakdown of primary income by sector.

In June 2012, the Department released a report entitled, The contribution of the ‘biosector’ to Ireland’s net foreign earnings: a provisional estimate for 2008[1]. The report measured the net foreign earnings in the biosector, comprising agriculture, forestry, fisheries, food, drink and tobacco industries. They were measured in terms of the net value of merchandise exports: that is the inflows associated with exports from the sector, plus international subsidy transfers, minus the associated outflows, principally on importing materials and repatriation of profits by foreign owned firms.

The report found that, in 2008, some 13 years ago, the biosector accounted for 40% (over €8 billion) of net foreign earnings from merchandise exports. This is more than double the biosector’s 19% share (almost €16 billion) of merchandise exports in that year. The main reasons for the biosector’s disproportionately large contribution to net foreign earnings from merchandise exports are lower import requirements per euro of exports, and higher receipts of EU payments.