IRELAND’S OCEAN ECONOMY Reference Year: 2012 Amaya Vega, Stephen Hynes, Emma O’Toole SEMRU (Socio-Economic Marine Research Unit), NUI Galway J.E. Cairnes School of Business and Economics, National University of Ireland, Galway Marine socio-economic data are not readily available in Ireland. However, they are essential in determining the value of Ireland’s ocean economy, so as to realise its full potential. The importance of marine socio-economic data collection and analysis has been recognised by the Irish Government in Harnessing Our Ocean Wealth – an Integrated Marine Plan (IMP) for Ireland, published in 2012. The Socio-Economic Marine Research Unit (SEMRU) began the extensive task of data collection and analysis of Ireland’s ocean economy in 2009. This resulted in the publication of a series of bi-annual ocean economy reports, to which, this report is the latest addition. This report provides a quantification and realistic monitoring of Ireland’s ocean economy over time and presents a complete and comparable sectoral profile across the ocean economy, which allows us to observe progress on the targets set out in Harnessing Our Ocean Wealth. The reference year for this report is 2012. The report also includes a set of economic projections that forecast Ireland’s ocean economy up to 2014. General trends in the Irish economy are reflected in the ocean economy. Ireland’s ocean economy is performing on average better than the general economy. While growth in Irish GDP from 2010 to 2012 was approximately 4.75%, the ocean economy grew by 9% in the same period. Estimates suggest that GVA growth rates in Ireland’s ocean economy for the 2012-2014 period are approximately 8%, which is above the recently released growth trends from the CSO that show an increase of 5% in Ireland’s GDP for the same period. This research was funded by the Marine Institute Beaufort Award, in association with Teagasc