Foreign multinationals paid roughly 88% of all Irish corporate tax in 2024, with the top 10 firms contributing over half of the total.
The real Irish GDP Per Capita in 2024 was at €40,000, similar to Italy.
—— Ireland: 5th source of US FDI: tax inversions + small number of Irish firms ——
Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is the total monetary value of all final goods and services produced within a country's borders during a specific period, typically a year or quarter.
It acts as a primary indicator of a nation's economic health, measuring size, growth rate, and overall economic activity.
Let's ignore the Duchy of Luxembourg, where near 50% of the workforce comes from adjacent countries. The population is almost 700,000 people.
Ireland has 2 Annual GDP Per Capita Results:
In 2024, the level was ILLION.108.9K per US dollar / €104.6 K per euro. It, in effect, was at the top.
1) The Main Annual Accounts include tax haven data for international consumption: €562.8 billion
2) The Second set of Annual Accounts includes: €321.1 billion
The Modified GNI (GNI*), including:
- factor income of Redomiciled Companies
- depreciation on R&D Service Imports and Trade in Intellectual Property (IP)
- depreciation on Aircraft Leasing
Per Capita was €59,000, but there is another fiction (see below further).
Ireland has a "low number of multinational firms" relative to peers like Denmark and Finland. While Ireland produces individual giants (like CRH, Kerry or Ryanair), it lacks the same density of medium-to-large indigenous exporters found in the Danish economy.
- Enterprise Ireland, an Irish government agency that promotes selling overseas
- The total was very low, including €7.30 billion in North America (€6.66 billion: US)
The American Chamber of Commerce in Ireland (AmCham) says that data on Irish/US trade comes from the Irish Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade.
It's a fairy tale that Ireland can muster about $400 billion from its resources in Ireland.
In 2024, across the world, Irish companies exported goods were worth €36.75 billion.
The American Chamber of Commerce in Ireland says that "Corporate Ireland’s total investment stock in the United States — $322 billion in 2023 — was greater than the total stock of Spain ($81 billion), Belgium ($73 billion) and China for that matter ($28 billion). Irish affiliates in the US generated some $183 billion in sales in 2022, more than Italy ($59 billion) and Belgium ($47 billion)."
— In 2024, the value was $390 Billion for Ireland!!
US companies that became Irish for tax purposes also remain in America.
Results on the 5th are the largest source of FDI, both in tax inversions, while having a small number of Irish firms.
Based on the description of an economic "mirage" driven by the accounting constructs of foreign-owned multinationals, this concept most accurately refers to the economic model of Ireland (often described as "Leprechaun Economics") or similar tax haven economies.
There are about 30 companies, mainly American, utilising tax inversions where they take advantage of the Irish 15% tax while also taking advantage of US benefits.
"Leprechaun Economics" is a term coined by economist Professor Krugman, a Nobel Laureate, to describe Ireland's distorted economic statistics, particularly its artificially high GDP, caused by multinational companies shifting profits and intangible assets to Ireland to take advantage of its low corporate tax rate.
This statistical "mirage" inflates Ireland's GDP, which can affect Eurozone economic data and EU budget contributions, although the government rejects the term as a mischaracterisation of its economic success. To provide a clearer picture, Irish statisticians now publish alternative indicators like Gross National Income* (GNI*), which is significantly lower than GDP.
Ireland has 10 R&D homegrown companies and 27 foreign- domiciled firms
Department of Business / Enterprise, Tourism and Employment:
Foreign-Owned exports at €424,500 billion include transfers from other countries to avail of Irish low taxes
The value of Irish-born exporters to North America in 2024 was €7.30 billion. The total worldwide was €36.7 billion. The value for the other 26 countries of the European Union was €10 billion.
In Ireland (including foreign firms), the R&D intensity is low.
With 2,000 of the top global R&D firms (global 2,000 R&D) and 800 companies in the European Union, there are a mere 10 Irish homegrown companies.
There are no Irish-born companies on the 2024 EU Industrial R&D Investment Scoreboard list of the top 800 EU-headquartered companies.
Ireland's GDP per capita is the highest in the world! — 1?
Irish software developers were at O.5% in 2024 while the total was 8.4% — 2
Ireland's low number of multinational firms and poor exporting record since 1932 — 11 companies
Goods for Processing and Merchanting, etc., 2024
Goods for Processing have been a separate staple in the Annual Accounts for the last 10 years.
In 2018, the IMF reported that about 25% of Ireland's economic growth in 2018 was attributed to Apple's iPhone sales, as the company’s intellectual property (IP) was located in Ireland, despite assembly occurring in China.
Italy has a €41,000 GDP Per Capita. I estimate that Ireland's is is €40,000.
Discussion
Excluding the United States and the United Kingdom, a number of other countries also made significant contributions to employment in 2022.
"There were 55,000 people employed in Irish-owned enterprises in Mexico, followed by China (48,500), Germany (40,300), and Brazil (37,500)."
This is a fantasy!!
Many Irish residents would be surprised to learn that nearly 1,400,000 people are employed by Ireland.
Total employment in Ireland reached a record high of over 2.82 million people in 2025.
Ireland escapes from the official designation of a "tax haven" by intergovernmental bodies like the OECD or the EU, but it is widely considered a de facto corporate tax haven by academics, NGOs, and various international reports due to its historical use as a base for multinational corporations to shift profits and minimise their global tax liabilities.
From January 2026, Ireland's R&D Tax Credit: Increased to 35% (from 30%) for accounting periods starting on or after January 1, 2026. When combined with standard deductions, this can provide an effective tax benefit of up to 47.5% on qualifying innovation spend.
The Leprechaun was said to have a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. Of course, the pot of gold would never materialise. He was a conniving creature!
The late John B. Keane (1928–2002) was a celebrated Irish playwright, novelist, and essayist from Listowel, Co. Kerry, known for capturing the raw, often humorous, and "cute hoor" (shrewd, cunning) nature of rural Irish life.
The "cute hoor" today are: some politicians, wealthy lawyers and accountants, mainly in Dublin.
Homer Simpson coined the word “Crisitunity” in The Simpsons season 6, episode 11, titled "Fear of Flying" (first aired in December 1994). In the scene, Lisa attempts to comfort a stressed Homer by saying:
“Look on the bright side, Dad. Did you know that the Chinese use the same word for ‘crisis’ as they do for ‘opportunity’?”
