The exchequer has received almost €440 million in dividends from State companies over the last two years, Tánaiste and Minister for Finance Simon Harris has said.
The largest amount came from the ESB (Electricity Supply Board) which paid €213.5 million to the exchequer in 2024.
The Social Democrats 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.
It is Government policy that there should be “an appropriate balance between the payment of dividends and reinvestment in the business”.
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 €44 million to the exchequer in 2024,
Overall, the Tánaiste said, in 2024 the exchequer received about €290 million in share dividends from State-owned companies.
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The Minister said energy company Bord na Móna paid dividends of €13.3 million to the exchequer last year while the Dublin Port Company provided €6 million.
He said EirGrid, the company responsible for the electricity grid, paid €4 million in dividends last year while Coillte, the State-owned forestry company, provided share dividends of €4.4 million.
AirNav, which provides air traffic management services in the 451,000sq km of airspace controlled by Ireland, paid dividends to the State of €4.5 million in 2024, Mr Harris said.
The Tánaiste also said that in 2024 the exchequer also received dividends of €600,000 from the Port of Cork.
The Minister said that up to October in 2025 Gas Networks Ireland paid dividends to the exchequer of just over €62 million.
EirGrid provided dividends of €54 million while Bord na Móna paid €23.17 million.
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.
“Year 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.
“Those 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”, he said.
Mr Harris also said that in the year to October the exchequer had received dividends of €435,000 from the Shannon Foynes port and €146,000 from the Port of Waterford.
In June 2023 the then minister for public expenditure Paschal Donohoe told the Dáil that it was government policy that commercial State companies should pay a dividend to the State.
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 “shareholder expectations framework”.
He said this was “intended to provide clarity and guidance for each of the companies within its remit in relation to the government’s strategic priorities, policy objectives and financial performance and reporting requirements”.
“One 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,” Mr Donohoe said.