Milton Friedman (1912-2006) was a Nobel laureate in economics and senior research fellow at the Hoover Institution and served on President Ronald Reagan's Economic Policy Advisory Board. Margaret Thatcher was also a fan.

Leonard Read (1898-1983), founder of the Foundation for Economic Education (FEE), is best known for his essay "I, Pencil," which Milton Friedman used to illustrate the power of free markets and the invisible hand of the economy.

"Once, on a visit to China, a deputy minister asked, "Who in the America is in charge of materials distribution?" The question took me aback, yet it was natural. For it was almost inconceivable that a citizen from a command economy could understand how markets distribute materials among millions of people for thousands of uses untouched by political hands."

The countries that lend to America

Major foreign holders of United States treasury securities as of December 2024 (in billion U.S. dollars)

The Federal Reserve and U.S. Department of the Treasury say foreign countries held a total of 8.5 trillion U.S. dollars in U.S. treasury securities as of December 2024.

Of the total held by foreign countries, Japan has $1,059.8  and China held the greatest portions, with China holding 759 billion U.S. dollars in U.S. securities.

The Irish $336.2 in billion, may be related to American firms that are domiciled in Ireland.

The federal deficit

The federal deficit in 2024 was $1.8 trillion, equal to 6.4% of gross domestic product.

America is the sick man of the advanced world

U.S. healthcare spending per capita is almost twice the average of other wealthy countries

The average life expectancy in Western Europe is 83 years, while in the US it's 77 years.

Trump's America doesn't like foreigners

Europe highlights gender rules and entry risks and Finland's advisory, updated Tuesday, advises applicants to put their gender at birth. "If the applicant's recorded gender differs from their birth sex, US authorities may deny entry."

Several European countries, including Denmark, Finland, France, Ireland, the Netherlands, and Norway, have updated their travel advisories for the US, highlighting potential entry risks for transgender individuals and those with gender identity discrepancies, due to stricter US immigration measures.

'A hostile state': Why some travellers are avoiding the US

Trump signed an order on April 2, 2025, announcing global tariffs minus Russia 

Adrian Wooldridge of Bloomberg has written "If health means wealth, as the adage has it, then America’s economic future looks grim.

Traditionally, the U.S. has enjoyed a health premium. In the colonial era, American men were on average two to three inches taller than Europeans, according to military records, a fact that fascinates historical demographers because height is correlated with longevity, cognitive development and work capacity.

Today, a premium is turning into a deficit. American men are shorter on average than Northern European men, and the gap is getting bigger. Six in 10 Americans suffer from at least one chronic condition and 4 in 10 suffer from two."

"America is a sick society,” says William Galston in the Wall Street Journal. "Literally.”

Healthcare spending per capita is substantially higher in the US compared to Europe, yet the US lags behind on metrics like life expectancy and infant mortality.

Survival in the wealthiest U.S. quartile appeared to be similar to that in the poorest quartile in northern and western Europe.

The US is the sick man of the developed world.

Americans' living standards aren't nearly as good as they like to think they are.

Health expenditures per person in the U.S. were $12,555 in 2022, which was over $4,000 more than any other high-income nation. The average amount spent on health per person in comparable countries ($6,651) is about half of what the U.S. spends per person."

US personal savings are close to rock bottom

Personal Saving Rate - in 2024, the US was at 4.6%; 15.3% in the 20-country Euro Area, and 44.3% in China.

GDP per capita April 2025: Ireland at $107.24 but is fake and Є30 thousands is correct

IMF April 2025 GDP per capita, current prices: US dollars per capita

Switzerland 111. 72; Ireland 107 .24; Singapore 93. 96; Norway 90. 35; US 89. 68; Denmark 71. 97; Netherlands 70.61. 61; Australia 67. 98; Austria 61. 08; Sweden 59. 51; Germany 57. 91. Canada 55. 89; UK 54. 28; New Zeland 48. 23; Italy 41. 71; Spain 37: 36; Russia 15. 08 and others.

In 2023 (published in mid-2024) the Irish Enterprise agency reported that €34.60 billion (Euros), in indigenous exports. There were no net data.

In 2023, the European Union (population of 449 million) and the UK (population of 68 million) bought just about €10 million from indigenous firms in Ireland.

European Union at the start of 2024: "The highest relative share of foreign-born individuals within the total population was in Luxembourg (51.0% of the resident population), followed by Malta (30.8%), Cyprus (26.9%), Ireland (22.6%), Austria (22.1%), Sweden (20.6%) and Germany (20.2%). By contrast, foreign-born individuals represented less than 5% of the population in Poland (2.6% of its resident population on 1 January 2024), Romania (3.1%), Bulgaria (3.3%) and Slovakia (3.9%)."

The Irish population was at 5.4 million in April 2024.

Mainly American firms give the impression that Ireland's per capita GDP is the second highest in the world.

It is in line with Portugal's.

Zelensky for 2025 Nobel Peace Prize? as Trump takes his guide from Moscow

President Volodymyr Zelensky leaving the White House after a heated meeting with President Trump, 28 February, 2025

The Nobel Peace Prize is awarded in Norway by a five-member committee appointed by the Norwegian Storting (parliament). The first Nobel Peace Prize was awarded in 1901.

The Nobel Peace Prize is awarded on December 10th in Oslo, Norway.

Chemist, engineer, inventor, businessman, and philanthropist Alfred Nobel (1833–1896) built a fortune selling explosives and ammunition and investing in petroleum companies. Even though he sold weapons, he hoped that his inventions would eventually remove the need for wars entirely.

In his will Alfred Nobel laid out who he wanted to be responsible for the selection of the Nobel Prize laureates. The prizes were to be awarded by Swedish institutions – apart from the peace prize, whose award was to be decided by a committee of five persons elected by the Norwegian Parliament.

Norway's national assembly (Storting) declared an end to the union with Sweden on June 7, 1905.

The Nobel Peace Prize has been awarded 105 times to 142 Nobel Prize laureates between 1901 and 2024, 111 individuals and 31 organisations. Since the International Committee of the Red Cross has been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize three times (in 1917, 1944 and 1963), and the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees has been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize two times (in 1954 and 1981), there are 28 individual organisations which have been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. Click on the links to get more information.

Trump's appeasement is worse than Neville Chamberlain in 1938

1% of Americans get almost 33% of the wealth while 53 million (44% of all workers) have a median annual wage of only $24,000 The U.S. resembles an emerging market.

Neville Chamberlain, the British Prime Minister (1937-1940), holds up a copy of the Munich Agreement in September 1938, which he signed with Adolf Hitler.

The Munich Agreement was agreed in Munich on 30 September 1938, by Nazi Germany, the United Kingdom, the French Republic, and Fascist Italy.

At Munich, Chamberlain got an international agreement that Hitler should have the Sudetenland (Sudetenland was a region in Czechoslovakia that was predominantly German-inhabited. It was located in northern and western Bohemia and northern Moravia. In exchange for Germany making no further demands for land in Europe.)

Chamberlain said on his return home from the pact with Hitler, it was: "Peace with honour, Peace for our time."

Hitler said he had "No more territorial demands to make in Europe."

America's 1% control 31% of wealth- 50% control 6%

Elon Musk in the Oval Office, Feb. 11, about cost-cutting in the federal government.

The world’s richest man and government official Elon Musk has accused federal workers of unfairly getting rich off the taxpayers, citing, without evidence, “quite a few” with a net worth of tens of millions of dollars.

Musk’s own companies have accepted over $20bn+ in taxpayer funds in the form of contracts, tax breaks, and other subsidies.

Upgraded to $38bn according to The Washington Post on 28 February, 2025. 

“We find it sort of rather odd that there are quite a few people in the bureaucracy who have ostensibly a salary of a few hundred thousand dollars but somehow manage to accrue tens of millions of dollars in net worth while they are in that position,” Musk said.

“I think the reality is they’re getting wealthy at taxpayer expense,” he added.

The Fortune magazine said "Neither Musk nor President Trump offered any evidence of corruption or improper enrichment that might explain federal employees allegedly getting rich off their government roles, and DOGE (Department of Government Efficiency) did not respond to Fortune’s request for examples.

Europe and Britain struggle in changing markets in 2025

In Europe 2024, the STOXX 600 ended the 52 weeks with a gain of 6%, according to Reuters. The STOXX and the American S&P 500 tracked each other from the early 1990s but from about 2012, the 500 never looked back.

The Financial Times at the year-end reported that Germany has an answer to US “magnificent seven” (Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, Meta Platforms, Microsoft, NVIDIA, and Tesla).

Wiltons still going strong as one of London's oldests restaaurants

Wiltons is most known for its oysters which one would expect as George William Wilton first opened his shellfish mongers close to Haymarket in 1742.

"It is located in Jermyn Street in the heart of London’s St James’s, is one of London’s oldest restaurants and is steeped in elegance and tradition. 

EU house prices up by 48% in less than 10 years

In less than 10 years, between 2015 and 2023, house prices in the European Union (EU) on average rose by 48%.

The biggest increase is marked in Hungary, where prices rose 173%, and the lowest in Finland, with just 5%.

Juho Keskinen, a Finish economist, has said that the capital region of Helsinki rose to levels that are unattainable for many low and middle-income earners.”

The situation is a consequence of both wage growth and house price decreases, according to Keskinen.

"In regions where house prices have risen only modestly for an extended period of time – namely, regions outside the largest population centres – the main determining factor has been wage growth.

In Helsinki, Tampere and Turku, for example, house prices have seen more dramatic increases, as well as decreases, in recent decades."

Europe imports 80% of digital tech; trade-to-GDP ratio above 50% and German debt brake

In September 2024 Mario Draghi, the former president of the European Central Bank (ECB) presented a report on Europe to Ursula von der Leyen, head of the European Commission:

The Future of European Competitiveness – A Competitiveness Strategy for Europe.

On 26 July 2012, then ECB President Mario Draghi gave the so-called “whatever it takes” speech, which now is widely considered as the turnaround point in the European sovereign debt crisis.

Shortly after, the European Central Bank (ECB) announced the details of its outright monetary transactions programme (OMT) tool.

Etihad Airways needs to address its failings

An Etihad Airways aircraft at Dublin Airport

Not too long ago, the American market dominated intercontinental flights serving Dublin, Ireland. Now, almost 50 airlines in total, are in the market. From the Middle East, Etihad Airways, Emirates and Qatar Airways service Dublin.

Etihad is the national airline of Abu Dhabi, which is part of the 7-country United Arab Emirates. Abu Dhabi is the largest Emirate in the UAE, occupying 84% of the nation's land. It has 200 islands and a 700-km-long coastline. The total area is 67,340 square kilometres, and Abu Dhabi City is the federal capital of the UAE.

Emirates is based at Dubai International Airport (DXB) in Garhoud, Duba. The airline operates out of Terminal 3, where flights arrive and depart from gates A, B, or C. Emirates says its the largest airline in the Middle East, with a fleet of almost 250 aircraft. It flies to more than 150 cities in 80 countries across six continents.

On October 15, 2024, at 6:00 a.m., I took a taxi from my hotel in Dublin. I had taken a flight to Dublin from Kuala Lumpur on October 1, 2024, using Etihad.

The scheduled 9:00 am flight from Dublin to Abu Dhabi on October 15 and a connecting flight to Kuala Lumpur were delayed until after 10:00 am.

About 20 minutes before arrival in Abu Dhabi a British staffer said people planning to go to Kuala Lumpur may be OK but if not the ground staff would help.

The Abu Dhabi airport has almost 100 gates. So it's a large place

I got a small piece of paper for instructions and that was it. (see the detail below).

Even the piece of paper missed that I had to go through two different screenings.

I went to LEVEL 3 but it was about 9:00 pm and relevant staff were not at their desks.

After about 40 minutes in a car, I arrived at Abi Dhabi's Marriott Bonvoy hotel. The staff was pleasant and I had 8 minutes in the restaurant before closure at 10:00 but it was poor.

I would give the hotel a 2-star.

I was in Business Class, which didn't matter.

On the 16th at 5 am I was picked up for a trip to the airport.

Ethid needs to improve its services and even on some of the long-haul aircraft, there is no onboard entertainment. 

__________________________________________________________ 

      Please go to ARRIVALS - LEVEL 0 and clear UAE Immigration

       After you have cleared Immigration, please proceed

      To Departures Area (LEVEL 3), Guest Services Desk (in front of

      Row C) for the transportation.           

 __________________________________________________________                  

World’s Top 100 Airlines 2024

Last Updated June 2024 - The Passenger's Choice Awards

This ranking of the top 100 airlines has been in operation for a quarter century.

"Qatar Airways has been voted the World’s Best Airline at the 2024 World Airline Awards, the eighth time that the airline has scooped the Airline of the Year title in the 25-year history of the awards"

White Christian Nationalism overtakes America's "Shining City upon a Hill"

The Declaration of Independence of the 13 United States of America: On July 4, 1776, it was adopted unanimously by the 56 delegates to the Second Continental Congress, who convened at the Pennsylvania State House, later renamed Independence Hall, in the colonial era capital of Philadelphia.

I was in the US in 1976, the year of the bicentenary and I bought this commemorative plate.

The United States was not born as a Christian Nation and it's bizarre that Donald Trump wants to make it. He is as devout as Putin.

In recent months, Trump has said that elections won't be necessary starting in 2028. “That statement is very simple, I said, ‘Vote for me, you’re not gonna have to do it ever again.’”

President-elect John F. Kennedy delivered an address in Boston, on January 9, 1961. It is called the"City Upon a Hill speech."

"For what Pericles had said to the Athenians has long been true of this commonwealth: 'We do not imitate — for we are a model to others.'"

And so it is that I carry with me from this state to that high and lonely office to which I now succeed more than fond memories of firm friendships. The enduring qualities of Massachusetts — by the Pilgrim and the Puritan, the fisherman and the farmer, the Yankee and the immigrant— will not be and could not be forgotten in this nation's executive mansion.

They are an indelible part of my life, my convictions, my view of the past, and my hopes for the future.

Allow me to illustrate: During the last sixty days, I have been at the task of constructing an administration. It has been a long and deliberate process. Some have counseled greater speed. Others have counseled more expedient tests.;

But I have been guided by the standard John Winthrop set before his shipmates on the flagship Arbella three hundred and thirty-one years ago, as they, too, faced the task of building a new government on a perilous frontier."

"We must always consider," he said, "that we shall be as a city upon a hill the eyes of all people are upon us."

Kennedy added “For of those to whom much is given, much is required. And when at some future date the high court of history sits in judgment on each one of us — recording whether in our brief span of service, we fulfilled our responsibilities to the state — our success or failure, in whatever office we may hold, will be measured…”

The Winthrop Fleet was a group of 11 ships led by John Winthrop out of a total of 16 funded by the Massachusetts Bay Company which together carried between 700 and 1,000 Puritans plus livestock and provisions from England to New England over the summer of 1630, during the first period of the Great Migration.

John Winthrop (1587-1649) became governor of Massachusetts Bay Colony and like many towns in New England, Boston has its naming roots in old England. Boston, Massachusetts was named after Boston, Lincolnshire, about 100 miles north of London on the North Atlantic Sea.

At the start of the voyage, John Winthrop wrote his sermon, “A Model of Christian Charity.” But it was generally unknown until 1838 when it was discovered by the New York Historical Society.

Winthrop was not the author of this sentiment. He quoted the Bible: Matthew chapter 5 verse 14 in his famous phrase, “For we must consider that we shall be as a city upon a hill."

Ireland's GDP per capita at $39,000 in April 2024, Denmark at $69,000

GDP per capita, current prices

US dollars per capita

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) in April 2024 published a ranking of GDP (Gross Domestic Product). The deep green on the map shows what are called 36 Advanced Countries.

The first two are anomalies. In Luxembourg, almost half the workforce lives in neighbouring countries while Irish data are about three times the reality because of foreign multinational distortions.

1) Luxembourg: 131,38 thousand; 2) Ireland: 106.06; 3) Switzerland: 105.67; 4) Norway: 94.66; 5) Singapore 88.45; 6) United States 85.37; 7) Iceland: 84.90; 8) Denmark: 68.90; 9) Australia: 66.59; 10) Netherlands: 63.75; 11) Austria: 59.23; 12) Sweden: 58.53; 13) Belgium: 55.54; 14) Finland: 55.13; 15) Canada: 54.87; 16) Germany; 54.29; 17) Isreal: 53.37; 18) United Kingdom: 51.07; 19) New Zealand 48,53; 20) France: 47,36; 21) Malta: 41.74;

Under 40,000:

Vienna again crowned world's most liveable city, Dublin dips to 39th ranking

Vienna again crowned as the world's best city for quality of life, in 2024

Time and again, Vienna, the capital city of Austria, has been voted the city with the best quality of life in the World.

The City of Vienna Government says "At the beginning of 2023, 1,102,570 Viennese were of Austrian origin, while 879,526 were of foreign origin. The main countries of origin of Viennese who are foreign nationals or were born abroad have hardly changed over the past years: at the beginning of 2023, 100,199 people originated from Serbia, 75,907 from Turkey, 69,265 from Germany and 55,151 from Poland.

The current metro area population of Vienna in 2024 is 1,990,000.

The annual Global Liveability Index ranks the liveability of 173 cities across five key categories: stability, healthcare, culture and environment, education and infrastructure.

The 2024 survey saw a rise in the average scores, driven by gains in healthcare and education across developing countries. However, this has been largely offset by declines in scores for several top-tier cities.

According to the survey from the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU), a unit of The Economist, Vienna is the world's most liveable city. At the same time, Dublin earned a 39th ranking, falling 7 ranks  — and the third biggest drop among any country.

Brussels has dropped five places, from 30 to 35. This is one of the biggest declines in the Liveability Index for 2024.

In Age of Conflict only 7.8% of World Population in Full Democracies

In 2024 there are only 24 Full Democracies in the World — 15 of them are in Western Europe. There is one in North America (Canada) and Africa (Mauritius); Two in Latin America and the Caribbean (Uruguay and Costa Rico); and 5 in Australia/Asia (Japan; Taiwan; Australia; New Zealand; and South Korea).

The far-right will have about 170 seats in the 720 European Parliament (about 24%). According to Parliament's rules, a political group shall consist of at least 23 Members elected in at least seven Member States. Alternative for Germany (Alternative für Deutschland, or AfD) has 15 seats but needs a group.

European malaise

In 1997 in the UK when the Labour Party won power after 18 years of Tory rule, the GDP (gross domestic product) of the United Kingdom was valued in dollars at $1.56 trillion while the GDP of China was $962 billion and India's valued at $416 billion,

The grim fifties in Ireland and Cork City

St Patrick's Street, Cork, in the 1950s

Over 500,000 people left independent Ireland between 1945 and 1960. The 1961 Irish Census of population at 2,818, 341 was lower than the 1926 Census. The latter was the first Census of the Irish Free State.

The 1950s: “It Was a Great Time in America” but "Between 1946 and 1961, 531,255 people, almost 17% of the population, left Ireland. Forty per cent of those between the ages of 10 and 19 in 1951 were gone by 1961. Most of the migrants went to Great Britain, but 68,151 left for America during and after World War II (1941–1961).

This piece is an addendum to a personal piece I wrote last year: Michael Hennigan's year of 1953 and 70 years later

Recently I located Google photos of Geraldine Place, which was in the centre of industrial activity in the City of Cork, Ireland.

The rich countries immigration boom and housing crises

EU

According to Eurostat in 2022, legal net migration was 5.1mn people, who immigrated to the EU from non-EU countries, while 1.0mn people emigrated from the EU to destinations outside the EU.

The inflow of immigrants from non-EU countries more than doubled compared to the estimated 2.4mn in 2021. Conversely, the number of EU residents emigrating to countries outside the EU remained stable, with 1.0mn emigrants in 2021.

Note: Bulgaria, Poland, Portugal, Slovakia, Finland, Sweden and Liechtenstein did not include refugees from Ukraine who benefit from temporary protection in their population and migration statistics.

1.5mn people previously residing in one EU Member State migrated to another Member State in 2022, an increase of around 7% compared with 2021.

27.3mn people (6.1%) of the 448.8mn people living in the EU on 1 January 2023 were non-EU citizens (the total of foreign-born is double-see below).

The Irish Government has said "Since February 2022 just under 107,000 people have arrived in Ireland as Beneficiaries of Temporary Protection following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. In 2023 approximately 13,000 people applied for International Protection (asylum) in Ireland."

Smart City Index 2024: Dublin at 69th ranking among 142 cities

Michelangelo Buonarroti (1475-1564): His cities were Florence and Rome*

IMD World Competitiveness Center (International Institute for Management Development is a business school with campuses in Lausanne, Switzerland and Singapore). 

"Smart cities are a fast-growing species, and a fascinating field for new experiments in a number of critical areas, ranging from urban planning, sustainable energy, and transport strategies to social integration and talent attraction, to name a few. 

As leaders and citizens around the world continue to assess, design, implement and improve on ways to create better cities, they often find themselves confronted with a multitude of decisions and a wide range of partial solutions to specific problems such as traffic congestion, waste management and crime."

Israel's Carthage and Netanyahu's long record of duplicity

Evacuation warnings issued by Israel to people in Gaza ahead of attacks contained a host of significant errors, BBC analysis has revealed. Warnings contained contradictory information and sometimes misnamed districts, making them confusing to Gazans seeking safety. Experts have said such mistakes could violate Israel's obligations under international law.

Cato the Elder (234–149 BC) is said to have repeatedly uttered the line Cato the Elder (234–149 BC) is said to have repeatedly uttered the line "Carthāgō delenda est" / "Carthage must be destroyed" in the Roman Senate.

The city was destroyed by the Romans in 146 BC during the Third Punic War.

Carthaginian, 62,000 dead and 50,000 enslaved of an estimated 112,000 present in the city; Roman, 17,000 of 40,000.

After several decades, Carthage became one of Rome’s most important colonies.

What was common between Carthage, under Roman control of the rubble, and Israel since its independence in 1948, is collective punishment.

The United Nations in 1980 said "It is estimated that between 15 May 1948 and the end of 1951, more than 684,000 Jewish immigrants settled in Israel on a substantial part of the land abandoned by the Palestinians.

Of the 370 Jewish settlements established between 1948 and the beginning of 1953, 350 were established on land abandoned by the Palestinians. In 1954 more than one-third of Israel’s Jewish population, plus 250,000 new Jewish immigrants, settled in whole cities that had been completely deserted by the Palestinians as a result of the military operations of 1948. Jaffa, Acre, Lydda, Ramleh and Beisan were some of them.

As to the Palestinian Arabs who had remained in Israel, restrictive measures amounting to dispossession were taken by the Custodian of Absentee Property, who was inclined to interpret the Absentee Property Law of 1950 rather too broadly."

B'Tselem, the Iseral civil rights organisation, in 2023 said that 554 homes, not related to construction, were demolished, and 784 houses were demolished in 2022.

B'Tselem said in 2021 "Israel embarked on a large-scale demolition campaign throughout the West Bank, in which it destroyed and confiscated dwellings, tents, livestock enclosures, buildings under construction, a road, and even a structure intended for burial. Twenty-two people, including 15 children, lost their homes in one day."

"Demolition for alleged military purposes is also common."

This is common in the West Bank and East Jerestelam and has been standard since 1967.

B'Tselem says Israel is an apartheid state.

"Israel’s regime of apartheid and occupation is inextricably bound up in human rights violations."

B'Tselem was established in February 1989 by a large group of Israeli lawyers, doctors and academics with the support of a lobby of ten members of the Knesset.

B’Tselem – The Israeli Information Center for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories strives for a future in which human rights, liberty and equality are guaranteed to all people, Palestinian and Jewish alike, living between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea. 

[Such a future will only be possible when the Israeli occupation and apartheid regime end. That is the future we are working towards. B’Tselem (in Hebrew literally: in the image of), the name chosen for the organization by the late Member of Knesset Yossi Sarid (1940-2015), is an allusion to Genesis 1:27: “And God created humankind in His image. In the image of God did He create them.” 

The name expresses the universal and Jewish moral edict to respect and uphold the human rights of all people.] 

Ireland’s dual economy: divergent performance, lowest export rate in EU

"Ireland now is one of the top 10 investors in the United States’ economy," President Biden said at the 2024 St Patrick's Celebration. In 2022 the amount was almost $300bn and $431bn for Germany. This Irish yarn is about redomiciled US firms for tax purposes, not the small number of Irish multinationals.

Irish multinationals with market cap €10bn+: CRH plc (1970) from merger Cement Ltd (1936) & Roadstone Ltd (1949) market cap €54bn; Ryanair (1985) €24bn; Kingspan (1965) €15bn; Kerry Group (1972) €14bn; Smurfit Kappa (1934) €11bn.

Micro: enterprises with less than 10 persons employed;

Small: enterprises with 10 to 49 persons employed;

Medium: enterprises with 50 to 249 persons employed;

Large: enterprises with more than 250 persons employed.

According to the Central Statistics Office (CSO) there were 11,785 exporting enterprises in 2022 i.e. with goods exports of over €1,000 in the year. (The minimum level is farcical.);

There were just 469 large exporting enterprises (with over 250+ employees) but they accounted for 79% (almost €161bn) of all exports in 2022. These large enterprises comprised only 4% of all enterprises;

There were 11,314 SMEs exporting goods in 2022. The total value of their exports was €38.3bn or 19% of total exports. This includes 6,917 micro-enterprises, which exported €10.1bn of goods;

Micro enterprises accounted for 59% of the number of exporters, but only 5% of the value of goods exported.

The 2021 EU chart above shows that from Micro to Medium the rate of 21% (19% on the bottom of the page) exporting was the lowest in the 27-member European Union and the highest at 79% for Large companies.

Small and medium enterprises in The Netherlands and Denmark have export rates of 60 and 50%.

The average reported turnover for the 12 months up to and including September 2022 was €4.03mn. This was €792,000 for Micro companies and €4.05mn for small-sized enterprises, while medium-sized companies reported an average turnover of €9.99mn.

Gross Value Added (GVA- see below) per person employed for large Irish-owned enterprises (250+ persons employed) was €68,993 but rose to €369,918 when foreign-owned large enterprises were included.

According to the CSO, a third of employment in Foreign-owned firms in Ireland is in SMEs.

Foreign-owned firms accounted for €332.1bn - an increase of 9.0% over 2020. This represents 86.6% of total sales related to government agency's clients in 2021.

Sales for Irish-owned firms increased by 13.1% between 2020 and 2021, amounting to €51.4bn or 13.4% of total sales.

(See below that other Foreign-owned firms import and sell in the Irish market.)