Catherine Murphy (Kildare North, Social Democrats)
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181. To ask the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment if he will provide a schedule of the non-commercial and semi-State commercial companies under his aegis; if an explanatory memorandum will be provided in respect of the policy of a dividend payment to the Exchequer from each company; the dividend paid by each company to the Exchequer for each year from 2000 to 2022; if his Department collects the funds and forwards it to the central fund or whether it goes directly; if over that period his Department has requested an increase in respect of the dividend due over it’s percentage shareholding; the number of occasions that it waived the dividend; the reason; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [7903/23]

Eamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party)
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There are 14 bodies under the aegis of my Department, details of which are available on the Department’s website gov.ie - State bodies under the aegis of the Department of the Environment, Climate and Communications (www.gov.ie)

Formal dividend policies are in place for all of the Commercial Semi State Bodies operating in the energy sector, which are summarised below. These have been developed via the Shareholder Expectations Framework and, in each case, seek to strike an appropriate balance between the payment of dividends and re-investment in the business. Where the dividend target is based on adjusted profits after tax, higher profits arising in any given year in the ordinary course would fall within the scope of the normal targeted dividend payments.

Additional detail may be found in the relevant Annual Report and Accounts as published by the Companies.

It should be noted that the financial years of the Bodies under the aegis of my Department span multiple calendar periods

State ownership percentage is included for the purposes of the Exchequer dividend calculation noting that Employee Share Ownership Plans (“ESOP”) are in place in respect of both ESB and Bord na Móna. This means that total dividends are shared proportionally with the ESOPs under the year-end shareholding structures. In the case of ESB, the State shareholding was 96.5% and ESOP shareholding was 3.5% as at 31 December 2021. This has increased annually from 95% in 2016. In the case of BnM, the State shareholding was 95% and the ESOP shareholding 5% as at 31 March 2021.