Background Notes

About this Release             

The Regional Accounts for Agriculture release provides a regional breakdown of figures already published at State level in the Output, Input and Income in Agriculture – Final Estimate release. Both publications are prepared using similar methodology and definitions of the accounts items, which are described in the Background Notes of the Output, Input and Income in Agriculture release.  

In the absence of the actual regional value data, the values of output and input accounts items at State level are apportioned to each region using a set of appropriate allocators. Derived variables, such as Gross Value Added at Basic Prices (GVA) or Operating Surplus are then calculated separately for each region. For example,

GVA at basic prices = Agricultural Output at basic prices – Intermediate consumption

Operating Surplus =    GVA at basic prices – Compensation of employees 

                              –  Fixed capital consumption 

                              + Other subsidies less taxes on production

The choice of allocator used to distribute State values to the regions varies for each accounts item. For example, for cattle output the allocator is total number of cattle less the number of dairy cows in each region, for pigs and sheep output it is the number of pigs and sheep in June of the reference year, for milk output it is the number of dairy cows multiplied by the average output per cow in the region etc.

Most of the items of intermediate consumption, such as expenditure on fertilisers, crop protection products, energy and lubricants, maintenance and repair, veterinary expenses and expenditure on other goods and services, are allocated based on the average expenditures per farm in each region, as measured by the National Farm Survey conducted annually by Teagasc.

Due to the indirect nature of the methodology described above more reliance should be placed on the changes between the years rather than on the absolute value of the figures for any one year.

The regional results presented in this release relate to each region as a whole. Thus the regional values of the account items, including operating surplus, are not necessarily spread uniformly throughout the region.

Methodological Changes

A number of methodological changes have been introduced with this release, which may have an impact on the distribution of country totals across the regions. In particular, the allocators used for certain items were revised and updated. The release also incorporates methodological changes in calculating the State totals introduced in the Output, Input and Income in Agriculture 2014 - Final Estimate. The results for reference years 2010 - 2013 have been revised accordingly.

Regions

The regional classifications in this release are based on the NUTS (Nomenclature of Territorial Units for Statistics) classification used by Eurostat. The NUTS 3 regions correspond to the eight Regional Authorities established under the Local Government Act, 1991 (Regional Authorities) (Establishment) Order, 1993, which came into operation on 1 January 1994. The NUTS 2 regions are groupings of the NUTS 3 regions. The composition of the regions is set out below.

Border, Midland and Western NUTS 2 Region

Border                                      Cavan, Donegal, Leitrim, Louth, Monaghan and Sligo

Midland                                     Laois, Longford, Offaly and Westmeath

West                                         Galway City, Galway, Mayo and Roscommon

Southern and Eastern NUTS 2 Region

Dublin                                        Dublin City, Dun Laoghaire-Rathdown, Fingal and South Dublin

Mid-East                                     Kildare, Meath and Wicklow

Mid-West                                    Clare, Limerick City, Limerick and North Tipperary

South-East                                 Carlow, Kilkenny, South Tipperary, Waterford City, Waterford and Wexford                  

South-West                                Cork City, Cork and Kerry

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