IMMIGRANTS LIVING IN Ireland sent an average of €795 million back to their home countries each year over the last eight years.
Figures released by the Central Statistics Office show that remittances were at their highest in 2009, when €1.04 billion was sent back, although that figure has been declining since, with €776 million sent back in 2013.
The CSO gathers the data using a variety of methods, statistician Stephen McDonagh told TheJournal.ie.
The total number of PPSNs issued to non-Irish nationals is combined with information about which sectors immigrants are working in.
The average earnings for that sector are then taken, and a formula is used to work out how much would be sent home once rent, food, and taxes are deducted.
The CSO then checks with equivalent organisations in the receiving countries and compares estimates on how much has come back from Ireland.
The majority of outflows are understood to flow to EU accession states that joined in the fifth and seventh enlargements of the bloc in 2004 and 2007.
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