Irish businesses that receive cash from Enterprise Ireland, the IDA, and LEOs got an average of €35,406 — but the average payment to a non-Irish firm was €240,651 over the period 2015 to 2020, or almost seven times greater.

That’s according to a review of EI activity from the department of public expenditure and reform, which reveals that the agency approved €2.4 billion in payments to client companies, of which €1.6 billion was paid out in the five years.

The 2021 Spending Review of the three agencies found that while smaller firms receive the largest number of payments, large enterprises still picked up most of the larger grants. While 43% of firms that receive a payment are micro, versus 6% that are large, 32% of all payments in value terms went to large enterprises versus 12% to micro.

IDA Ireland is more likely to support medium and large non-Irish owned firms. Enterprise Ireland has a spread across micro, small and medium firms which are Irish-owned, and Local Enterprise Offices focus only on Irish-owned micro businesses, as aligned to the agencies’ mandates.

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Across the regions, the allocation of payments aligns more or less to the how the overall enterprise base and agency client base are distributed, with Dublin (32%), Cork (13%) and Galway (8%) the counties which receive the greatest level of support.

Although Dublin has 55% of IDA Ireland clients, it receives 21% of the support provided. In contrast, Cork, Galway, Limerick, Tipperary, and Waterford all receive a greater share of support in value terms from IDA Ireland relative to the proportion of clients located in the county.

For Enterprise Ireland, 9% of payments go to overseas clients although they make up only 1% of the client base. These mainly go to overseas funds who then distribute the money to Irish firms.

The manufacturing sector receives most payments from IDA and EI (47%), followed by information and communication and finance and insurance, both at 21%. Enterprise Ireland has a strong focus on food products and beverages. IDA Ireland focuses support on medical devices and pharmaceuticals. The LEOs do not provide sectoral information.

The latest reports are available on the Spending Review site here.