Munster 'richer than the Paris region', according to new EU figures       

There is a well-known problem with using the GDP figures to assess prosperity in Ireland, however, in the way it accounts for the activity of multinationals.

Aerial view of Cork City. Picture: Denis Scannell

Munster remains the second-wealthiest region across the entire EU, based on GDP figures from the European Commission which purportedly show the region is wealthier than the Paris area. 

A Eurostat report reveals that the GDP per capita in Ireland’s Southern region, which incorporates the six counties of Munster as well as Carlow, Wexford, and Kilkenny, is almost three and a half times greater than the EU average.

It estimates that the average GDP in the Southern region in the Republic in 2019 was 240% of the EU average. Only Luxembourg, with 260%, had a higher level of wealth creation. The figures put the Southern region ahead of leading economic regions in mainland Europe, including Île-de-France (which is the Paris region), Brussels, Prague, and Hamburg.

Ireland’s Eastern and Midland region, which covers the remaining counties of Leinster, including Dublin, was the joint-fourth highest, with Brussels at 202% of the EU average. 

However, the Republic’s third region, Northern and Western — which consists of Connacht and the three Ulster counties in the Republic — had just 78% of the EU average. Eurostat said there was considerable variation in GDP rates both between and within the 27 EU member states.

It partly attributes the strong performance of Ireland’s Southern and Eastern and Midland regions to the large capital assets owned by some multinationals based in the Republic.

However, there is a well-known problem with using the GDP figures to assess prosperity in Ireland, because the measure wildly overestimates the size of the Irish economy in the way it accounts for the activity of multinationals here.               

Eurostat said GDP per capita was a measure of the total economic activity in a region used for comparing the degree of economic development between different parts of the EU. 

“GDP does not measure the income ultimately available to private households in a region,” it added.

The EU’s poorest regions were generally found in eastern Europe, where GDP per capita was as low as 32% of the EU average, in Bulgaria’s North-West region. Ireland’s Southern region also recorded the greatest labour productivity rate from some 240 regions in the EU in 2019.

The latest figures show that GDP per person employed in the Southern region was €205,000 compared to the EU average of €66,800, while Eastern and Midland had the second-highest level in the EU with €156,900. 

In contrast, the rate for the Northern and Western Region was less than €70,000.