The view from the Google offices in Ireland. Image: Google
Google’s Irish operations recorded an after-tax profit of €293m on a turnover of €22.6bn in 2015.
Alphabet subsidiary Google, which has been in Ireland since 2003, said that its Dublin operations are seen as a key driver of global growth.
In figures filed with the Companies Registration Office, Google revealed a turnover in Ireland of €22.6bn for 2015.
It said the increase in turnover – up from €18.3bn in 2014 – was driven by an increase in advertising revenues generated on Google websites and Google Network Member websites.
‘Dublin is recognised as a key driver of growth among our customers and we are constantly innovating to help them grow stronger and better businesses’
– RONAN HARRIS
Cost of sales, or traffic acquisition costs, increased from €4.7bn to €5.5bn in 2016.
Google Ireland recorded profit on ordinary activities after taxation of €293.6m, up from €170.6m the previous year.
Employment at Google Ireland grew 10pc to 2,824 direct employees and overall, Google is responsible for a total employment of 6,000 people in Ireland.
Google said it paid €46.5m in Irish corporation tax in 2015, up from €28.6m the previous year.
It opened its second data centre in Dublin as part of a €150m investment, which created an additional 30 jobs.
Google invested €111.1m in R&D and engineering, up from €73.9m in 2014.
Ireland is the data capital of Europe
In recent weeks, Google revealed that site lead Ronan Harris is now taking up the reins of the overall Ireland and UK operations at Google. His replacement in Ireland as country manager will be Fionnuala Meehan.
“Our operations in Dublin are contributing to our global success through our work with advertisers, publishers and users across EMEA,” Harris said.
“Dublin is recognised as a key driver of growth among our customers and we are constantly innovating to help them grow stronger and better businesses.
“Last year, for example, we established the AppHub to help developers take advantage of the potential €60bn EU App Economy. The AppHub brings together App specific expertise from across Europe, the Middle East and Africa to support developers [to] capture this opportunity.
“We are also supporting Ireland’s growing start-up community. In 2015, we launched our Google for Entrepreneurs partnership with Dogpatch Labs. The objective of this partnership is to nurture and grow the next generation of innovators.
“Separately, some 400 digital experts in Google Dublin volunteered over 5,000 hours working with entrepreneurs on their fledgling businesses,” he said.
“As Google grows, Ireland continues to benefit. In 2015, we opened our second data centre, bringing total investment in capital assets in Ireland to over €750m.
“We now employ about 3,000 people directly and in the region of 3,000 people in contracted positions, bringing total employment at Google Ireland sites to 6,000 people,” Harris added.
