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DURING LEADERS’ QUESTIONS in the Dáil yesterday afternoon, independent TD Noel Grealish raised the issue of personal remittances being sent from Ireland to other countries.
In particular, he singled out the amount of money being sent from Ireland to Nigeria – he said €3.54 billion was sent over an eight-year period.
There was a degree of surprise in the chamber at Grealish’s comments, with fellow TD Ruth Coppinger labelling the remarks as “disgraceful racism”.
Citing World Bank figures, Grealish stated: “Over the past eight years alone over €10 billion has left this country by way of personal transfers, this is a staggering amount of money.
“The top five countries where money was transferred to over the past eight years include €843 million to Lithuania, €1 billion to France, and the top three countries: €1.54 billion to Poland, €2.7 billion to the United Kingdom, and €3.54 billion was sent to Nigeria,” Grealish stated.
Speaking directly to Taoiseach Leo Varadkar, the Galway West TD said: “Transfers to other EU countries I can understand, for example money being transferred to the United Kingdom, our nearest neighbour, with over 100,000 British people living in Ireland and over 10,000 Irish students in the United Kingdom.”
Referencing Nigeria, he added: “But Taoiseach, €3.4 billion (Grealish seemingly misspoke here and meant €3.54 billion) transferred to one non-EU country is astronomical.”
Grealish then asked: “Has Revenue or the Department of Finance any way of tracking this money or where it is coming from? Can I ask you Taoiseach are there mechanisms in place to ensure that the money that leaves this country in personal remittances has been fully accounted for with the Irish Revenue and tax system and is not the proceeds of crime or fraud?”
Later in the exchange, Grealish added that he believed “an awful lot of [the money] is genuine money”, but again asked what controls were in place in relation to remittances being sent from Ireland to other countries.
Grealish said the €3.5 billion figure relates to “the past eight years”.
World Bank estimates for personal remittances sent from Ireland to Nigeria from 2011-2018 – the last eight years – come to about US $3.85 billion or €3.5 billion. They are as follows:
According to the 2016 Census, there were 13,079 Nigerian people living in Ireland at that time: 6,995 Irish-Nigerians and 6,084 Nigerians. This figure may be an underestimation but it is the most recent number available.
There were 17,642 Nigerians living in Ireland five years previously, according to the 2011 Census.
Using the 13,079 figure, every Nigerian living here sent over €37,400 back to their home country if the €490 million figure for 2018 is accurate, which seems very unlikely.
Even if we presume that the number of Nigerians living in Ireland has increased to 20,000, that would mean every one of them sent about €24,500 home last year.
Are the World Bank figures reliable?
However, these World Bank figures are estimates and come with a big caveat.
As noted on more than one occasion in the Dáil over the years, the figures are not reliable and the amount of money actually being sent from Ireland to Nigeria in personal remittances is likely to be a fraction of these estimates.
On 23 May 2013, following the publication of the World Bank report on global remittances for 2011 and subsequent media reports highlighting the amount of personal remittances reportedly sent to Nigeria, the topic was discussed.
The World Bank Migration and Remittances Factbook for 2011 estimated that $601 million (about €546 million today) was sent from Ireland to Nigeria that year.
In response to a query from Fianna Fáil’s Niall Collins, then-Finance Minister Michael Noonan noted that the figures were not likely to be reliable.
Noonan said the $601 million figure “seemed disproportionately high in view of the reported size of the Nigerian population in Ireland and in view of the level of remittances from other nationalities to their home countries”.
I understand from the World Bank that the remittance figures relating to Nigeria are estimates provided to the World Bank by the Nigerian authorities and not actual data.
“These estimates are based on total remittance inflows reported by Nigeria allocated according to its estimated stock of emigrants and further adjusted by the World Bank in the light of differing national per capita income levels. The World Bank believes that some elements of the estimation process may not be reliable.”
Noonan went on to add:
Available information would indicate that the figures published in the World Bank Migration and Remittances Factbook in respect of remittance flows between Ireland and Nigeria are open to serious scrutiny and that the real figure may be a fraction of the published figure.
Several caveats
The numbers Grealish quoted were from estimates gathered by Knomad, the Global Knowledge Partnership on Migration and Development, on behalf of the World Bank.
When asked how the estimates are gathered, a spokesperson for Knomad told TheJournal.ie: “Bilateral flows of remittances from Ireland to Nigeria and other countries, which are a key data requirement for international remittance service providers, are not readily available from official sources.”
Due to the lack of readily available figures, Knomad estimates bilateral remittance flows by allocating remittance receipts reported by Nigeria (and other countries) to various source countries in proportion to the following:
Outward remittances are calculated as the sum of workers’ remittances and compensation of employees.
According to this methodology, bilateral remittance flow from Ireland to Nigeria in 2018 was estimated to be US $539 million (about €490 million), or 2.2% of Nigeria’s total remittance receipts of $24.4 billion (€22.2 billion).
The spokesperson said this methodology “implies several caveats to the resulting estimates of bilateral flows between Ireland and Nigeria”.
For example, Nigeria’s total remittance receipts may not be accurate, due to under-recording of flows through unofficial channels.
“It is possible that some of the remittances from Ireland to Nigeria may be attributed to other countries (for example, the United States or the United Kingdom that house the headquarters of many correspondent banks),” they said.
The spokesperson noted that the number of Nigerian people living in Ireland “may not have been accurately measured taking into account documentation status” such as naturalisation, expiry of visa, irregular status arising out of recent movements of people including refugees, transit migrants, retirees and other return migrants.
‘Urgent need to improve data collection’
The Knomad spokesperson noted that a larger share of remittances may be attributed to Ireland if other host countries for Nigerian people “do not report or under-report migration stock data”.
Second- and third-generation Nigerians living abroad may also send remittances, which may not show up in official data.
Despites these issues, the spokesperson said “until central banks publish data on remittances by source and destination, estimation using this kind of methodology is the only option”.
“This methodology is perhaps the only way to get around the measurement difficulties associated with attributing sources to headquarters of correspondent banks.
There is an urgent need to improve data collection on both migration and remittance flows, not only in low- and middle-income countries, but also in high-income countries.
“With remittance flows on track to overtake foreign direct investment flows, the urgency has only increased.”
At odds with CSO figures
Last month, Grealish (via a parliamentary question) asked for “the amount sent out of Ireland in personal remittances in each of the past 10 years; and the countries to which they were sent each year”.
In the reply delivered to Grealish by junior minister Seán Kyne on 22 October, it was noted that personal remittances sent to Nigeria from Ireland were €17 million each year from 2010-2017, and €16 million in 2009. Over the past eight years, that amounts to €136 million.
These figures were collated by the Central Statistics Office, estimated using Revenue data.
The most recent year for which we have both World Bank and CSO figures is 2017. According to the World Bank estimate, about €430 million was sent from Ireland to Nigeria that year. This figures drops to €17 million according to the CSO – about 4% of €430 million, and €1,300 per Nigerian living in Ireland (as per the latest Census).
When asked by TheJournal.ie how it gathered these figures, a spokesperson said the CSO “estimates worker remittances paid from Ireland as a small component of the current account of the balance of payments”, adding: “These are all transfers from Irish resident households to non-resident households.”
The spokesperson said remittance information is difficult to compile for national statistics offices and is “usually based on administrative sources and modelling rather than direct collection”.
“Pay of non-national workers is used to estimate disposable income and to derive a remittance amount. The approach using indirect data sources is recognised as a standard approach in the IMF Guide for Compilers and Users of International Transactions in Remittances…
The balance of payments is a complex accounting system which summarises economic transactions between Ireland and the rest of the world in a specific time period. The compilation of the balance of payments is based primarily on enterprise surveys. The framework includes also actual data and estimates of resident to non-residents of household, government and non-profit institutions.
The spokesperson added that the CSO is “currently investigating new approaches to deriving remittance information”.
‘A point of clarity’
In response to Grealish’s comments during Leaders Questions, Varadkar yesterday stated: “The numbers that you quote are no doubt correct, but I’m not quite sure where you’re going with this.”
Speaking in the Dáil today “on a point of information and clarity”, the Taoiseach echoed Noonan’s comments from 2013.
Varadkar stated: “The figures that we have from the Central Statistics Office, which is under my department and is a very well regarded and reliable statistical agency, they indicate that remittances from Ireland to Nigeria are about €17 million a year, which isn’t an enormous figure.”
Speaking about the figures used by Grealish yesterday, Varadkar said: “I understand that the World Bank remittance figures in relation to Nigeria are estimates provided to the World Bank by the Nigerian authorities and not actual data.”
He added that, as such, those figures “are open to serious scrutiny, and we would believe that our statistics are the accurate ones”.
Varadkar told Grealish “there are a lot controls in place around money laundering” and asked the TD to make available any relevant information about potential irregularities, if he had any.
No response
Grealish did not respond to TheJournal.ie when contacted on a number of occasions today. We sought to clarify why he used the World Bank figures rather than the CSO statistics that were recently sent to him.
Speaking in the Dáil yesterday, Varadkar noted how common it is for people who are living abroad to send money back to their country of origin.
“Everyone in this house will know from the stories their parents told them or their grandparents told them that for many decades and many centuries Irish people went all over the world and sent back their remittances to Ireland,” Varadkar said.
“I know you mentioned that perhaps there is a distinction between those going to other EU countries and those not, just walk a few metres across Merrion Square into Holles Street hospital, you’ll see a hospital that is full of midwives from India and nurses from the Philippines and doctors from Egypt and Pakistan and I don’t know where.
“And they work hard and pay their taxes and out of their post-tax income they send money back to their families who probably paid for their education. That is the way the world works, it’s the way Ireland worked and still does.”
A number of economists, including Gerard Brady, Chief Economist at Ibec, have echoed these sentiments, pointing out that Irish people living abroad have for decades sent money home to their families in Ireland.
As outlined above, there are a number of difficulties with gathering accurate data in relation to personal remittances.
Grealish’s comments are based on figures contained in World Bank reports. However, the figures are estimates provided by Nigerian authorities and not accurate data.
Therefore, to state that “€3.54 billion was sent to Nigeria” from people living in Ireland over the past eight years – the claim we are factchecking – is incorrect.
Grealish also had access to the more accurate CSO figures which state that approximately €138 million in personal remittances were sent from Ireland to Nigeria from 2011 to 2017.
Given the statistics available, we rate this claim: FALSE.
As per our verdict guide, this means the claim is inaccurate.
TheJournal.ie’s FactCheck is a signatory to the International Fact-Checking Network’s Code of Principles. You can read it here. For information on how FactCheck works, what the verdicts mean, and how you can take part, check out our Reader’s Guide here. You can read about the team of editors and reporters who work on the factchecks here.
Note: This article was updated on 14 November to include a statement from Knomad.
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The so called ‘Native Americans’ were descendents of colonist who came over on the mayflower and damn near wiped out the actual Native Americans and they had the gall to bitch about European immigrants
Funnt that isn’t it, how natives who are celebrated for their acts of humanitarianism and charity through Thanksgiving, can be almost virtually wiped out by the immigrants whose lives they saved
“Native Americans’ as in several different tribes who were constantly killing one another in tribal war fare.
‘Native Americans’ as in the original inhabitants of the US who were violently massacred, raped and had their land stolen off them by colonists it doesn’t matter if they were engaged in tribal warfare or not it doesn’t excuse the brutality and genocide of the colonists
Harry don’t forget the use of biological warfare against the Natives when the colonists gave the Natives blankets that were deliberately infected with smallpox.
Even the original Native Americans came from elsewhere – they were not conjured out of the soil.
They civilization with the bigger club, faster spear, larger sword won the day. Unfortunately for the native tribes it was the Europeans.
That’s how evolution works within a species. In human terms success is down to, amongst other things, social organisation, the ability to adapt quickly to varied environments, resources, and technology. It’s brutally objective, but a fact nonetheless. Many people who suffer post-colonial, or white, guilt don’t like to hear this.
Harry the Spanish played a big part in wiping out the natives and they ‘the spanish’ were Catholic
A right good read . Well done author
Thanks a lot, Tony!
Second that!
Excellent piece. .still lots of anti catholic bias in the states today too
Great read.
Well done author Dan MacGuill, you’re not as stupid as I thought you were……
Really? There’s no anti-Catholic bias where I live in New York. Are you referring to Fundamentalists? They are biased in their pulpits, but have little power elsewhere.
Really? There’s no anti-Catholic bias where I live in New York. Are you referring to Fundamentalists? They are biased in their pulpits, but have little power elsewhere.
‘Fear and hatred of Irish Catholics’?
This should definitely be of interest to the Journal.ie readership.
Especially women and children,the things that church did to them.
So which CLASS of the journal. ie you fall into…free speech and all of that.oran.
Kinda like every Summer up in the North of Ireland then….
God is a hoax.
looks like bedtime reading this
Ha ha Paddy your nearly right,it’s not much shorter than Tim Pat Coogans book Wherever Green is Worn.
The story is much too long. There was always a great fear of Catholics in the us of the 44 presidents just one was Catholic jfk and they shot him dead in his third year in office
Is it just me or is this article very one sided? All the attacks seem to be the ‘native Americans’ against the Irish. We’re there no retaliatory attacks to balance out the story? The Irish seem to be entirely innocent based on this account.
The reason I ask is because I picked up a book recently about Irish Immigrants to America from the 1700s on thinking I was going to read a heart warming story about plucky unfortunate immigrants who built America but instead I got a whole book about racist drunks who fought constantly with every other race, didn’t assimilate, took over sections of cities and didn’t allow anyone but Irish in. Then they rose through American society cheating and favouring the Irish through police, judicial and political systems. Many who rose through the classes then looked down on the Irish. And because the Irish were formed clicks, they limited themselves greatly as they tended to stay in the same jobs generation after generation (police, construction, firefighters) as nepotism was rife. It was really eye opening and changed my rose tinted view of Irish emigrants.
So this article seems very one sided as the Irish seem to have done nothing wrong.
This was the book, by the way: http://www.amazon.com/The-Irish-Americans-A-History/dp/B004G0947U
If they were all that bad then every 2nd yank wouldn’t be coming out claiming to be Irish.
Spot on John, but then that’s Irish Nationalism to a tee “Nothing’s ever our fault, we’re victims of oppression, etc.”
No time for factual reporting there’s an agenda to push!
Who would begrudge the Irish any retaliatory attacks?
A few cracked skulls for the fundamentalist “natives” would round the story out just nicely,and certainly wouldn’t put the Irish in a negative light.
What does it have to do with Irish Nationalism? Kindly switch on your brain.
How doesn’t it? Nationalism bangs on about the Irish as a distinct racial/cultural group different from everybody else, subject to disproportionate discrimination and oppression from all quarters, whose actions are always absolved of any blame as it was “just cause”. An interesting read, but as the original comment suggested, maybe one sided.
I’m sensing a bit of whingeing about the IRA creeping through here.
You only need to hear one side,Bernard. Unless you think the religious fundamentalist Nativists had just cause on this,or any other occasion during that era of American history?
What next? The ISIS Paris attacks were a bit one sided,maybe you like to get their side of the story?
That comment doesn’t make a lot of sense. The IRA were never mentioned. But what you’re saying is because it’s Irish, one needs only hear that side of the story? The ISIS reference I don’t get, but they, like the IRA, are terrorists.
The Nativists were an organisation of hysterical religious bigots.Who wants to give people like that a voice? Throughout the mid 19th century they were intent on using violence,intimidation and murder to achieve political aims.See also the Louisville riots of 1855.
People like that are today known as terrorists.For some bizarre reason, you want to hear their side of the story.I can only see one aggressor in this situation.Maybe you resent the Irish standing up for themselves,is that it?
In your response I think you’ve proved John Smith and my point very well. Thanks!
Well no,not even you can prove your own point by the looks of it.You can’t exactly argue on behalf of the religious fundies and terrorists so now you’ve reached the sorry conclusion that the only way to bow out of here with any dignity is by being a smart arse.Very English I must say…
Then the Irish integrated and persecuted the Italians. Then the Italians integrated and hated the Poles. Now people hate hispanics and Muslims. Nothing ever changes.
@James Xenophon,
The Muslims will NEVER integrate.
That’s what they used to say about the Jews, Eamon.
@James Xenophon,
I don’t recall Jewish refugees doing massacres like the Bataclan or San Bernardino.
Ah well, at least “Irish” Protestants have have moved on from those dark days of religious bigotry,hysteria and paranoia.Laugh Out Loud.
Especially the ones up north
Only up north.No problems with the southern variety.
The resident xenophobic trolls should take stock of this.
It is not that long ago that masses of Irish emigrants were subjected to racism and bigotry at the hands of people who perceived themselves to be better than the Irish.
Lost interest after reading this gem
“We don’t know what was said, if anything, during the meeting at the Nanny Goat Market, on the corner of 2nd and Master streets.
It seems likely it was triumphalist in tone, and inflammatory in its location, however.”
Ahhhh Bernard we were victims of oppression. I mean what else would you call it?
No more than anyone else, yet some have a habit of portraying the Irish as The Most Oppressed People On Earth then continually harping on about it. It’s an unattractive characteristic.
A bit longwinded, that religion has a lot to answer for is very evident, however,in the context of the genocide perpetrated against native American Indians throughout the Americas, this was a bit like Puck Fair after midnight.
You see,you and I know that,but modern day Catholics love to play the persecution card,or what might be better known as,whinging because the people they enjoyed oppressing are being treated as equals in society now.
So Richard you believe in equality for all except those who believe in God?
Your viewpoint is a common misconception Jane,you see,believing in a god is a choice (a dumb one,but a choice nonetheless),equality is about treating people who cannot change their circumstances as equals,not about facilitating people with delusions.
So only equality for those who choose what you agree with? Double standards.
Except that’s not what I said,read this nice and slowly…equality for those who cannot change their circumstances,comprendé?
Kinda is Richie.
No jane,it’s not,I think the years of indoctrination have affected how you process information.
Jane – no, he was quite clear. Catholics in Ireland are claiming to be persecuted because their privileges of discriminating against others is being removed.
What “others” if you’re talking about gay people fair enough. But i think you’ll until find alot of the Baptist and Presbyterian flock STILL hold onto homophobic views. And if you mean the Catholics discrimination of other races in this country… I’d say that up until the 90′s you could count on one hand how many immigrants were coming in to the country and even then I doubt you’d hear many priests on the pulpit demonising immigrants.
First time in a long time I’ve stood up for the Catholic Church… I hope you’re happy.
Out of interest Richard I really would like to know who the Catholics oppressed?
Richard. The Irish in Philadelphia were the oppressed in this situation! Purely because of their nationality and religion. Are you completely myopic?
@Eoin. I doubt he was talking about the catholics discrimination of other races in this country, it’s catholic discrimination against persons with other belief systems in this country i believe he was saying.. For example, school enrollment, illegitimate children ect ect
Panti matter,correct,thanks for helping the others along!
Who did the Catholic Church oppress?
HMMMMM. Let’s think hard here. First, they allowed their staff i.e. priests to rape and assault children. No matter what scale you use, and even their own “Bible”, provides that this is the most heinous crime save murder. What could be worse than an institution that controlled through sexual abuse?
Then there were the Industrial Schools and the Laundries. I need not go into details, but suffice to say, horrific abuse occurred under their “cross”. The genocide of babies, tossed in large pits. Kinda reminds one of the same humanity of the Nazis.
Women also suffered under the patriarchy system of the church.
Sure, some things have changed and the abuse is not rampant as it once was. And this is because the customers removed themselves from the benches, not because the church cleaned up its act.
@West cork lad. Will you stop posting facts,the Faithfull have no time for that carry on. Wheter it’s turn the other cheek or turn a blind eye, either way, you will get the usual rethoric from the apopogists………it was only a minority that were abusers. Jesus wept !
Your welcome Richard, they do understand but just don’t like either accepting or admitting the sickening crimes of their church.
Thanks for this article!
The , King James Bible is the earliest translated Bible from aicent hebrew.The Catholic Bible as you quoted (the one True God) is in fact a lie.Rome has added books and changed sentences , from the ( one True God ) bible , the Only hebrew One bible there is . The Catholic Church has adoped tge holy family from the Bible ,,in order to win favour of families , esp Mothers who will produce more recurits for there order, this giving them power money because of power an greed over people.St Partrick wasnt a Roman Catholic , he was trained in whales . Thats why it was Patrick who told ireland there was a father son holy spirit and his followers after him were banned from teaching The bible feeding the poor and housing the homless.these saints got free land an food of irish kings for the people.When 3 Roman Bishops sawhow the cream the money was given to these irish saints , they wrote to the pope an had them banned from from there duties .Stealing there jobs free land an homes , now Rome got it .The war may appear about Religion , but its really about ,power and greed ,( money) .
Of course it is Joan. Its for the same reason priests were ordered to remain celabite. It wasn’t until the year 1139 when the second lateral council made the decision. Imagine the priest dying and the church having to allow his widow and children take possession of the property which was his residence. As Ray Croc, the founder and CEO of McDonald’s stated, the only other organisation with more property than McDonald’s was and is the Catholic Church..
Lateran
Pricictive text Michael but you got my drift and thanks.
Just a simple question,who told the tortoise what time the BOAT was leaving.and how long it would take him to get there…
The tortoise surely doesn’t care how long it would take. He’s in no féckîn hurry.
The reason the Churches set up their own denominational schools was and is to protect their religious ethos. Looks like our present Labour Education Minister wants to maintain an American Nativist stance where schools run under religious patronage is concerned. The British administration in Ireland tried the non-denominational route in the 1860s to 1880s by trying to have Catholic schools “hide” any signs of being Catholic. This was unsuccessful. Is our native government today trying to “peacefully” do here what the American Nativists failed to do and the British Administration failed to do here? The solution in Ireland before our independence was that each denomination set up schools in accordance with their own denomination with a local clergyman acting for the local diocese bishop as patron. It worked and the local population raised the one third local contribution towards the building of the schools. The local contribution continued up to relatively recent times at 10% with the patron having to provide a free site. Right from its inception the State ( be it British or Irish) paid the staff through the patron’s representative. The Board of Management structure is recent (1975) but the ethos of the Patron or Patron Body is paramount as it should be.
“…our native government today trying to “peacefully” do here what the American Nativists failed to do…”
This self evidently isn’t the case as 95% of the schools in Ireland are Catholic, yet the population is only about 50% practicing Catholics so, if you want your children to attend a school in the locality where you live then you have to go through the hypocrisy of having your children baptised as Catholic.
Worse though if you are Atheist, you have virtually no chance of your children going to a school where they are not indoctrinated into the superstitious nonsense of religion.
The sooner there are genuine secular schools in Ireland the better. Education and religion should be completely separated, if you want to brainwash your own children then that it is your choice, do it on a Sunday at Sunday school or the like, but teaching young, impressionable children 2,000 year old fairy tales is what has held back integration for so long.
This is especially the case in the North where divisive religious teaching has even less place in the education system. For peace to have a chance there, all schools need to be completely secular and have a mixed intake. But I appreciate that people will not want this, that they will probably want to hold on to their tribalism, such a shame.
Good luck to Ireland’s educational reforms, unfortunately they won’t come in time for my children,but I live in hope that common sense will prevail for the benefit of future generations of children.
That Bishop is the cut of Vincent Browne.
A really interesting read. Very well written. Thanks Dan
now that’s what I call a really good read well done
Fascinating piece of history. Well done author. More of these please.
Interesting subject overfilled with so much detail. I gave up the will to live. Too badly structured.
Christians! Pftttt!
Had ‘Dubliner’ Hugh Clark not been so dismissive as to suggest to phase out ALL Bible lessons, a lot of lives could have been saved. Not to mention the usual inability of the Irish to organise any kind of resistance or produce a leader.
So if we get the bible back in public schools (other than comparative religion classes where it belongs) just think of the grand mal fights we can have over which bible to use. Look what happened to Philly.
Actually John, the riots happened because Hugh Clark wanted to get rid of all Bibles, denying the right of religion.
have your say