THE STATE is set to receive a €16.5 million dividend from the Dublin Port Company, bringing to €36.6 million the total payout made to its sole shareholder over the last five years.
The payment includes a core dividend of €6.5 million, which relates to the Dublin Port Company’s 2010 financial performance. It compares to a payment of €5.5 million made last summer.
The company will also pay a special dividend of €10 million to the State. A spokesman for the company said this payment arose as a result of “a request for an additional dividend from the State”.
Dublin Port Company, which is 100 per cent owned by the State, has had a policy of paying between 20 and 30 per cent of its annual profits to the State in recent years. Its 2010 annual report will not be made public until it has been put before the Oireachtas, but the company said yesterday it returned to growth in throughput last year after two years of falling trade.
At its agm yesterday, the company said throughput increased 6.1 per cent last year to 28.1 million tonnes, which is just 9 per cent off the historic high of 30.9 million achieved in 2007.
“In addition to paying a dividend to our shareholder we remain committed to investing in the port’s infrastructure to ensure that Dublin Port remains the efficient modern competitive port it has become,” the company’s chairwoman Lucy McCaffrey said.
Minister for Transport Leo Varadkar congratulated the company on the strong financial performance for 2010 that enabled it to pay a further dividend to the State.