New data from the Central Statistics Office (CSO) shows that overseas sales of Irish multinationals rose to nearly €256 billion in 2019, with the UK and US accounting for nearly 57 per cent of the total.
Subsidiaries of multinational corporations headquartered in Ireland employ more than 1.1 million people, a third of whom are in the United States or the United Kingdom.
A company is considered owned by Ireland if more than 50 per cent of the controlling interest is in the Republic.
The UK saw a 5 per cent drop in Irish branch sales from 2018, to €42.7 billion, while employment grew 4 per cent to nearly 125,500.
The US showed improvement across the board, with employment growth of nearly 13 percent, or 29,773, to just over 263,000, while business volume grew 8 percent to nearly €102 billion.
Irish subsidiaries in Germany, France and the Netherlands accounted for 10.6 percent of Irish subsidiaries’ overseas sales, while the three countries also accounted for nearly 7 percent of the workforce of Irish multinationals overseas.
Germany and France were quite similar in terms of turnover at 4.1 percent and 4 percent respectively, while the Netherlands accounted for 2.5 percent of the turnover.
Italy and Canada saw the highest employment growth in Irish subsidiaries in Italy and Canada, with Italy reporting a 31.1% increase between 2018 and 2019 and 23% over the same period. Canada is closely followed, with 26.2 percent growth in employment and 9.3 percent in sales.
The Netherlands, Germany and China all saw employment declines in Irish subsidiaries, at 17.6%, 4.7% and 2.0%, respectively.
Irish subsidiaries have 38,600 employees in China, over 34,300 in Germany and just over 16,500 in the Netherlands.
