Boston Scientific, the medical device manufacturer, was given financial supports worth €18 million by IDA Ireland in 2023, new figures show.
Information contained in a European Commission state aid register shows that the IDA gave the funding in a number of tranches over the course of last year.
The supports came in the form of funding or grants for research and development, staff training, and environment and energy measures among others, the database shows.
The boost in taxpayer funding came at the same time that the company announced that it would be spending €80 million to expand its manufacturing and office space in Clonmel, which would lead to the creation of 400 new jobs and the transfer of 90 per cent of its energy supply to renewables.
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Boston Scientific’s Irish arm “generated a significant net profit” in 2022, according to its most recent financial accounts. Directors noted in the financial statements that it was “in a strong positive net asset position at the end of the financial period”. The company paid out a dividend of $1.05 billion (€960 million) during the year.
The company had pretax profits of $101.5 million in 2022, up from $63.2 million the year before, the accounts show.
It had revenues of $1.48 billion that year, roughly in line with the revenues for the year before. It had 511 more employees that year, with its workforce rising from 5,339 to 5,850.
Boston Scientific has been operating in Ireland since 1994 and its operations are spread across sites in Galway, Cork and Clonmel.
It has been expanding those operations in recent years with help from the Irish taxpayer. In 2022, for example, the company announced it was expanding its Galway operation and said at the time that it would be investing €100 million in the facility. That year the IDA provided Boston Scientific with €3.5 million in funding, the European Commission state aid register shows.
The company has received nearly €60 million in various support from IDA Ireland over the past 10 years, the register shows.
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