State agency pension costs at €61.4m

Combined pension costs across all State agencies amounted to just under €61.4m last year, and, nearly 80% of the Oireachtas grant given to trade advisory board Forfas was hoovered up by pension costs.

According to Forfas’ latest annual report — published yesterday — its annual grant increased by 15.5% to €51.4m, last year, 78% of which went towards the funding of pensions across its own workers and those in Enterprise Ireland, IDA Ireland, Science Foundation Ireland and their preceding agencies.

In all, the €61.4m pension cost figure was up from a figure of €60.4m from the previous year.

The remaining 22% of the grant funding went on expenditure on “policy activities and corporate and shared services,” according to Forfas.

The annual report also noted a continued shrinking of Forfas’ annual surplus; which amounted to €740,000 at the end of 2012. That figure was down from the €783,000 recorded in 2011 and the €820,000 in 2010.

On the back of the new report, Forfas chief executive Martin Shanahan paid tribute to the Government’s Action Plan for Jobs, saying it is having “a positive impact” on enterprise development and job creation.

However, Mr Shanahan added that a continued focus on improving the State’s competitiveness levels is necessary in order to ensure “we can grow employment and exports”.

“Export growth in 2012 — particularly the growth in indigenous exports — is very welcome. However, Ireland remains highly reliant on a small number of exporting sectors, which is of concern,” Mr Shanahan said, before noting that service exports are also highly focused on a small number of areas.

“Ireland is also reliant on a small number of key markets and, in 2012, the US, Britain and other EU countries were the three most significant markets for goods exports,” he added.

Forfas’ annual report showed that total full-time employment among development agency-supported Irish-owned companies amounted to 144,964 as of the end of 2012; up by nearly 3,230 on the previous year’s level.