Foreign-owned firms were responsible for 91% of Ireland's tradeable goods and services exports in 2009. Food and drink exports, which come mainly from the indigenous sector, fell 15% according to the survey carried out by Forfás. The survey covers the client base of Enterprise Ireland, IDA Ireland, Shannon Development and Údarás na Gaeltachta Export earnings for Irish-owned firms was €11.5bn and the earnings for the foreign sector was €114.4bn. Indigenous exports accounted for 8.7% of the total. 

The indigenous food and drink sector saw sales decline by 10.7% in 2009 and exports by 15%. The euro exchange rate with sterling was a contributing factor to this result. Exports in traditional manufacturing also saw a decrease of 15.5% in 2009 over 2008. In contrast, the relatively small sector of modern manufacturing & energy reported a small growth in exports in 2009 of 2% on the previous year.

Export growth among Irish-owned internationally traded services was over 7% during 2009. Exports of information, communication & computer services among Irish-owned firms were strong, with growth of almost 12% between 2008 and 2009 compared with 2.8% for the period 2000-2009. While the business, financial and other services sectors also saw growth in 2009 with 5.6% over 2008 and giving an increase of almost 14% for the period from 2000-2009.

Export growth of 2.6% per annum over the period 2000-2009 for all sectors compares with the 2.3% per annum growth in total sales among indigenous companies.

http://www.finfacts.ie/irishfinancenews/article_1021094.shtml