Catherine Murphy (Kildare North, Social Democrats)
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188. To ask the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport 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. [7915/23]

Eamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party)
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My department has 19 agencies under its aegis of which there are 11 commercial and 8 non-commercial agencies. A schedule of the agencies under my department’s remit is listed below. Seven of these agencies are eligible for dividend payments to the State.

Commercial Non-Commercial

The Government expects that profitable State-owned commercial companies return a shareholder dividend on their profits.

National Aviation Policy states “It is Government policy that profitable commercial State companies should pay a financial dividend to the State. The guideline figure is 30% of after-tax profits. The Government expects the State aviation companies to have a clearly stated dividend policy to take account of their current financial circumstances and plans for the future. Depending on circumstances, the dividend paid may be more or less than the 30% guideline. Dividend policy should take account of issues such as current and projected profitability, capital investment plans and pension funding”. This relates to daa and SAG.

For the IAA, the current dividend policy has been set at a base level of 30% of profits after tax.

In relation to the dividend polices of the state port companies these are all board approved and normally reviewed on an annual basis. Dividend policy is that dividends are paid at a level equal to 30% of after-tax profits less pension funding requirements including contributions towards defined benefit pension scheme deficits and servicing of borrowing requirements which arise specifically from the capital infrastructure investment programs underway in all the Port companies.

No increase has been requested from the agencies under my remit outside of the 30% figure with the following exception:

In 2011 and 2013 Port Companies were requested to consider paying additional dividends that year in the context of Budget 2013. Dublin Port Company’s board approved additional dividend payments in those years resulting in additional €10m paid in 2011 bringing total to 16.5m equal to 80.4% of PAT. Additional 8m paid in 2013 bringing total to15.0m equal to 65.7% PAT. The Port of Cork Company did increase annual dividends in the period 2012 to 2018 in consultation with the Department prior to 2019 when the company was committed to borrowing €60,000,000 of debt to deliver the new Cork Container Terminal in Ringaskiddy.

The dividend payment in any given year for all agencies is paid directly to the central fund .

Dividend Payment 2000-2022

1.daa

While in principle commercial State companies ought to deliver a dividend to the Exchequer daa has not been in a position to do so over a number of years.A dividend of €19.4m was made in respect of the financial year 2008 and this was the first dividend paid since 2004 when a dividend of just over €6m was paid.

A dividend was not expected from 2010 onwards due to a number of factors; the Company was addressing its debt burden, there was a general downturn in the aviation sector due to the recession, the Government was focused on ensuring that the State airports separation process was bedded down in the daa and that the Company’s pension issues were resolved.

From 2020 – 2022, no dividend was paid by daa due to the financial implications of the Covid-19 crisis.

2. SAG

While in principle commercial State companies ought to deliver a dividend to the Exchequer and it is provided for under legislation the department has not requested that the Shannon Airport Group pay dividends to date, but keeps the matter under review.

3. IAA

In the period 2005-2012 a dividend was not paid. Contributing factors included the level of distributable reserves from which make a dividend payment could be made, the economic downturn and also the need for the IAA to address a pension deficit that existed at that time.

Circumstances impacting the IAA, namely the recovery from the pandemic and the situation in Ukraine resulted in the payment of a dividend being waived in 2022, as an exceptional measure. A further consideration was also the forthcoming separation of the IAA as provided for under the Air Navigation and Transport Act 2022.

It should be noted that in terms of 2018 and 2019 dividend payments, these payments include the 30% profit after tax payment and also a special dividend payment of €12m in each of the 2 years.

4. Ports

Dividends were not waived however, in 2020, given the uncertainty of the economic impact of both the COVID 19 pandemic and Brexit, the Board of the company determined that no dividend be proposed or paid during 2020 and this was recognised in the Ministerial address given at the Port Company AGM’s. There were occasions when the port companies paid no dividends or less then 30%, a number of reasons are set out below however, at all times payments were in line with dividend policy.

4.1 Dublin Port

Prior to 2007 no dividends paid pending funding of pension deficit. From 2007 dividends were paid. The 30% policy applied from 2010. 10% was paid in 2019 and nil in 2020 and 2021 following boards determination that it would be inappropriate to pay dividends in the context of the major capital investment programme underway and the impacts of COVID-19.

4.2 Shannon Foynes Port Company

SFPC was in a negative reserve position until 2014 and was therefore legally precluded from declaring and providing for a dividend as no distributable reserves were available. As soon as was legally possible, Shannon Foynes declared a dividend from 2014 results, payable in 2015. Given the uncertainty of the economic impact of the Covid-19 pandemic, no dividend was proposed or paid during 2020, this was the only year that SFPC did not pay a dividend from 2014 where it became legally able to do so.

4.3 Port of Cork

Dividends were not requested from the Port of Cork Company until 2011. It is the policy of the Board of Directors of the Port of Cork Company to support the Shareholder and pay an annual dividend taking into account the capital expenditure programme and pension deficit facing the Company when declaring the annual dividend. The Port of Cork Company is currently facing a capital expenditure programme of €100 million over a three-year period. The Company was forced to defer the payment of a dividend in 2020 and 2021 due to COVID-19, and the level of borrowing undertaken to deliver a new Container Terminal in Ringaskiddy having paid a dividend of €250,000 in 2019.

4.4 Port of Waterford

The Port of Waterford is a tier 2 port of national significance and has much lower revenues then the Tier 1 ports of national significance (Dublin Port Company, Port of Cork, Shannon Foynes Port Company). In 2018 the departments shareholder expectation letter to the Port of Waterford requesting the board to put in place a new dividend policy. Port of Waterford has paid dividends since 2019 except for 2020 and 2021 due to the significant impact of COVID-19 on their revenues.