The first estimates by the Central Statistics Office of our national output for the previous year are usually published in June.
This year, however, they were released somewhat later - on July 20th. This is because of work on improving the data on the activities of the Financial Services Centre - a revision which represents the last stage in a work programme by the CSO designed to ensure, in the office's own words, "the exhaustiveness of the national accounts".
Since last May the CSO has been publishing new quarterly balance-of-payments data which separate the transactions of the Financial Services Centre, and for the first time publishes information on banking and insurance transactions.
As a result, and with the aid of some supplementary breakdowns of data provided by the CSO, it is now possible to separate information on the activities of manufacturing multinationals operating in Ireland.
These operations need to be seen in the context of our overall industrial activity. Unfortunately, 1997 is the last year for which separate figures for industrial production and employment by foreign-owned and Irish companies are available.
The corresponding 1998 output and employment breakdown will be published next month.
The 1997 figures show 48 per cent of workers in manufacturing industry were employed by foreign-owned firms - with just over half working for US multinationals. Of the workers engaged in manufacturing goods for export, over 70 per cent were employed in foreign-owned firms. And in the software sector, half the workers were employed in foreign-owned firms, which, as in the case of manufacturing, also account for the bulk of software exports.
Most of these foreign-owned industrial and software firms are highly profitable.
In 1997 they produced £28.6 billion worth of goods, well over 90 per cent of which were exported. In addition to royalties of £2.7 billion and £2.9 billion worth of services sold by the parent company to their Irish subsidiaries, the profits in 1997 from these direct foreign investments amounted to about £7.5 billion, well over 25 per cent of turnover.
Of that total almost £1.5 billion was reinvested here, and the remaining £6 billion was remitted abroad.
So the total receipts of these foreign-owned manufacturing companies derived from their Irish business, including royalties and payments for services, amounted to £11.6 billion.
As will be seen from the table, when allowance is made for the £6.3 million of materials imported by these foreign-owned firms, the amount retained in Ireland, exclusive of the £1.5 billion reinvested here, was £9.2 billion.
Of this sum, £3.7 billion was accounted for by materials purchased here - a substantial injection to our manufacturing sector - and £2.1 billion was paid to the 115,000 workers employed in these companies.
In evaluating these companies' profits, account should be taken of the fact that, because of our 10 per cent corporate tax rate, these multinationals naturally aim to maximise the Irish proportion of the profits they make from the eventual sale of these goods.
To the extent that tax authorities elsewhere may permit, they can do this by means of transfer pricing - that is, by buying materials from their subsidiaries elsewhere at low cost so as to increase the value added here, and also by attributing to the Irish manufacturing operation as much as possible of their sales and marketing costs abroad.
This means the profits properly attributable to the Irish manufacturing operation in 1997 may in reality have been less than the reported £7.5 billion. Nevertheless, allowing for this, the Irish manufacturing operations of these multinationals are clearly very profitable.
Now, between 1997 and 1999 there was a huge surge in our industrial exports, which jumped by almost 50 per cent. While we do not have a breakdown of 1998 and 1999 exports between domestic firms and foreign multinationals, it is clear exports by foreign-owned firms must have risen by something like 60 per cent. The total output of these firms last year must have been worth around £45 billion - and, once again, well over 90 per cent of this production was exported.
Between 1997 and 1999, the profits of these companies rose correspondingly, from £7.5 billion to £12.3 billion, and of this total almost £3.7 billion was reinvested here last year.
Thus, in 1999 these companies remitted abroad over £8.6 billion in dividends, as well as over £5 billion in royalties, and £8 billion for services to their Irish subsidiaries.
That adds up to almost £22 billion - or very nearly half the value of their total sales here and abroad.
This jump of £4.8 billion in the profits of foreign-owned companies within a two-year period was reflected in an increase of £3.7 billion in the net outflow abroad of what is called "factor income".
It is this outflow that accounts for the very big discrepancy between our Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and Gross National Product (GNP) figure.
Most international comparisons of output are made in GDP terms. This flatters us unduly because last year some £10 billion of our £69 billion GDP, namely 14.5 per cent, was accounted for by this income outflow. GNP data, which exclude these payments abroad, are a much better indicator of our performance.
Nevertheless, even in GNP terms, OECD figures suggest our purchasing power per head is passing out that of both Britain and the EU.
This year it is likely to be 4 to 5 per cent above the British figure and the EU average. We have now joined the richer half of the EU's membership.
These new balance-of-payment figures also reveal for the first time the scale of the flows of direct industrial investment in Ireland, which were previously hidden within an overall net balance of investment flows. Thus last year's foreign direct industrial investment in Ireland was £4.8 billion, of which £3.7 billion came out of the retained profits of these foreign-owned firms.
The other side of our investment flows, of which we hear remarkably little, is, of course, Irish direct investment overseas. It appears some 30 Irish firms have significant direct investments abroad.
Last year the flow of such investments rose from the 1998 figure of £2.75 billion to £4 billion. Over one-third came from the reinvestment of foreign profits of these Irish investors.
It is interesting that Irish multinationals are now investing abroad almost as much as foreign multinationals are investing here, £4 billion as against £4.8 billion.
I do not think this is generally realised.
The dividends to Ireland from Irish firms investing abroad seems negligible. For the time being, these Irish investors are concentrating on building their overseas operations. But in the long run such dividends will be an important resource, helping us to sustain a population which in 10 years will be starting to develop a higher proportion of pensioners.
Footnote: Interestingly, our retired population is shrinking. While the number aged 65 and over is rising by about 3,000 a year, the number recording themselves as retired in 1999 declined by almost 6,000.
The shortage of workers seems to have drawn back into the workforce people who had retired during the late 1990s.