Press Statement

Preasráiteas

13 June 2019

Over 300,000 jobs linked to Foreign Direct Investment in Ireland in 2017

Go to release: Foreign Direct Investment in Ireland 2017

The Central Statistics Office (CSO) has today (13 June 2019) published Foreign Direct Investment in Ireland 2017.

Foreign Direct Investment in Ireland 2017, a thematic publication exploring the impact of FDI and globalisation, shows over 300,000 jobs are directly linked to foreign investment into Ireland.

Commenting on the publication, Senior Statistician Christopher Sibley said: "This experimental research has been developed to add value to official statistics by linking FDI figures across domains, in particular to employment and wage statistics and is intended to highlight the relevance of FDI statistics more broadly."

Despite a decrease of €54bn in the stock of Foreign Direct Investment into Ireland between 2016 and 2017, at €744bn (253% of GDP) investment still remains high in comparison to other EU countries showing the highly globalised nature of the Irish economy.

Employment figures show growth across all sectors since 2012, with the largest growth (28%) recorded in the scientific and technical activities sector. In 2017 average wages in foreign-owned multinational enterprises (MNEs), at €50,000, were significantly higher than those paid by domestic firms (€33,000), but lower than those paid by Irish MNEs (€57,000). All sectors experienced wage growth, with the largest growth in the information and communications sector and the administration and support services sector, which experienced 26% growth and 20% growth respectively between 2012-2017.

This is the second time the CSO has published this experimental publication linking data across statistical domains. Foreign Direct Investment in Ireland 2017 looks at the role of investment into Ireland, its associated globalisation and its role in the Irish domestic economy. This publication brings together several different data sources designed to complement the annual and quarterly Foreign Direct Investment statistics presented in our International Accounts.

New to this year’s publication is a breakdown of gender balance in FDI firms and an analysis of the influence of Special Purpose Entities (SPEs), distinguishing between actual investment in firms operating in Ireland and funds passing through via SPEs.

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