David McNamara: Irish growth hangs on foreign direct investment

Small number of very large multinationals driving economic prosperity which highlights the growing interdependency of Ireland with the US economy

The big picture is the multinational sector has contributed to nearly 50% of economic activity (in gross value added terms) since 2020, a level shift from the 35% average of the previous decade.  File picture

The latest set of national accounts data for Ireland provide further evidence of the volatility of GDP growth on paper, masking more moderate trends in the domestic economy. 

As ever, a small number of very large multinationals continue to drive the headline trends and highlight the growing interdependency of Ireland with the US economy.