The Irish economy expanded by almost 6% in the year to the end of September according to new figures published by the Central Statistics Office.
However, when allowance is made for an increase in the level of profits repatriated abroad by multinational companies based here the economic growth rate was 4.2%.
The figures show that the rate of economic activity was remarkably stable throughout the first nine months of this year with about €25.5 billion worth of output being added every three months.
The CSO figures also show that after allowing for inflation consumer spending is up 2.8% and industrial output is up 4.9% compared with September of last year.
The CSO also noted that the output of the house building sector in the third quarter of this year was unchanged from the same period last year, indicating that house building may have reached its full capacity.
Economists are concerned that a reduction in output from house builders next year could depress economic growth figures for 2005.
Overall, however, today's economic growth figures show that on average about €400 million of economic activity is being added to the economy every day for the past 12 months.
This works out at about €100 for every man, woman and child in the country or about €212 per worker.
