{"id":219301,"date":"2025-12-06T23:40:22","date_gmt":"2025-12-06T23:40:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/219301\/"},"modified":"2025-12-06T23:40:22","modified_gmt":"2025-12-06T23:40:22","slug":"exchequer-receives-almost-e440m-in-dividends-from-state-companies-in-last-two-years-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/219301\/","title":{"rendered":"Exchequer receives almost \u20ac440m in dividends from State companies in last two years \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

The exchequer has received almost \u20ac440 million in dividends from State companies over the last two years, T\u00e1naiste and Minister for Finance Simon Harris<\/a> has said.<\/p>\n

The largest amount came from the ESB<\/a> (Electricity Supply Board) which paid \u20ac213.5 million to the exchequer in 2024.<\/p>\n

The Social Democrats<\/a> on Friday maintained that the proceeds from such dividends from State companies could provide the basis of a fund to upgrade the national grid and boost energy security.<\/p>\n

It is Government policy that there should be \u201can appropriate balance between the payment of dividends and reinvestment in the business\u201d.<\/p>\n

Mr Harris also told Aidan Farrelly of the Social Democrats in reply to a parliamentary question earlier this week that gas and water utility Ervia paid dividends of \u20ac44 million to the exchequer in 2024, <\/p>\n

Overall, the T\u00e1naiste said, in 2024 the exchequer received about \u20ac290 million in share dividends from State-owned companies.<\/p>\n

\"\"Will the Government\u2019s new plan speed up the delivery of vital infrastructure projects? <\/p>\n

The Minister said energy company Bord na M\u00f3na<\/a> paid dividends of \u20ac13.3 million to the exchequer last year while the Dublin Port Company<\/a> provided \u20ac6 million. <\/p>\n

He said EirGrid<\/a>, the company responsible for the electricity grid, paid \u20ac4 million in dividends last year while Coillte<\/a>, the State-owned forestry company, provided share dividends of \u20ac4.4 million.<\/p>\n

AirNav<\/a>, which provides air traffic management services in the 451,000sq km of airspace controlled by Ireland, paid dividends to the State of \u20ac4.5 million in 2024, Mr Harris said. <\/p>\n

The T\u00e1naiste also said that in 2024 the exchequer also received dividends of \u20ac600,000 from the Port of Cork.<\/p>\n

The Minister said that up to October in 2025 Gas Networks Ireland<\/a> paid dividends to the exchequer of just over \u20ac62 million.<\/p>\n

EirGrid provided dividends of \u20ac54 million while Bord na M\u00f3na paid \u20ac23.17 million.<\/p>\n

Mr Farrelly, a Social Democrats TD for Kildare, said on Friday that funding-generated dividends from State companies to the exchequer should go towards improving energy security.<\/p>\n

\u201cYear over year, ESB is one of the main contributors to the annual dividend return from the commercial semi-States, and has returned well over a billion euros to the exchequer in the past decade.<\/p>\n

\u201cThose returns could be a good starting pool to directly draw from in terms of the upgrading and future-proofing of our national grid and to bring certainty to our energy security\u201d, he said.<\/p>\n

Mr Harris also said that in the year to October the exchequer had received dividends of \u20ac435,000 from the Shannon Foynes port and \u20ac146,000 from the Port of Waterford.<\/p>\n

In June 2023 the then minister for public expenditure Paschal Donohoe told the D\u00e1il that it was government policy that commercial State companies should pay a dividend to the State.<\/p>\n

He said that NewERA, the organisation that provides financial and commercial advice to government ministers and departments in relation to their shareholdings in State companies, had has developed a \u201cshareholder expectations framework\u201d.<\/p>\n

He said this was \u201cintended to provide clarity and guidance for each of the companies within its remit in relation to the government\u2019s strategic priorities, policy objectives and financial performance and reporting requirements\u201d. <\/p>\n

\u201cOne of the key areas addressed as part of this shareholder expectations framework is dividend policy, which seeks to strike an appropriate balance between the payment of dividends and reinvestment in the business. The dividend policy in respect of each individual commercial State company is a matter in the first instance for their parent government department,\u201d Mr Donohoe said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The exchequer has received almost \u20ac440 million in dividends from State companies over the last two years, T\u00e1naiste…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":219302,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[73],"tags":[118524,52686,79,71826,1877,35975,18,20869,52737,10892,19,17,44],"class_list":{"0":"post-219301","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-business","8":"tag-airnav-ireland","9":"tag-bord-na-mona","10":"tag-business","11":"tag-coillte","12":"tag-cork","13":"tag-dublin-port","14":"tag-eire","15":"tag-eirgrid","16":"tag-esb","17":"tag-gas-networks-ireland","18":"tag-ie","19":"tag-ireland","20":"tag-simon-harris"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/115675268677163769","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/219301","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=219301"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/219301\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/219302"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=219301"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=219301"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=219301"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}