State-owned enterprise sector, 2017

Table 1 provides some broad financial indicators for the fourteen largest non-financial state-owned enterprises (SOEs), drawn from the most recent accounts published by each company for 2016. The figures highlight the continuing importance of the SOE sector to the Irish economy, with the aggregate turnover of the SOEs included in Table 1 being equivalent to 3.5 per cent of nominal GDP in 2016, while the total number of employees represents 1.9 per cent of national employment. Table 1 also highlights the magnitude of investment carried out by SOEs, with close to €2 billion of capital expenditure in 2016 (to put this in context, net public capital expenditure in 2016 was just over €3.8 billion). In addition, the dividends paid to the Exchequer in 2016 amounted to an appreciable €268 million, bringing the total amount transferred to the Exchequer from 2008 to 2016 by the eight SOEs in Table 1 that paid dividends to over €2.26 billion.2 While the majority of the SOEs listed in Table 1 are profitable operations that contribute much-needed investment and pay substantial dividends to the Exchequer, a number of SOEs face ongoing financial difficulties that have threatened the viability of their operations in some cases. We provide a brief analysis of the main issues facing the loss-making SOEs below while also reviewing notable developments in 2017 related to some of the profitable SOEs listed in Table 1.