Taoiseach Bertie Ahern oversaw Ireland's EU presidency

Only four countries benefited from EU money in 2003 - Portugal, Greece, the Irish Republic and Spain - while the rest were net contributors.

In terms of cash per head, the funding amounted to a net receipt of 391.70 euros for each Irish national, according to figures released by the European Commission on Tuesday.

At the other of the scale, Dutch and Luxembourg nationals pay 120 euros and 125 euros respectively, while each Briton pays 46.50 euros.

EU budget commissioner Michaele Schreyer insisted that the economic advantages of belonging to the European Union far outweighed the costs.

"For net contributors too, the economic and political benefits from belonging to the internal market, the currency union and the European peace framework far outweigh the net payments to the EU budget," she said.

"EU membership is the best conceivable investment," she added.

Member states contribute to the EU budget roughly in proportion to the size of their economy.

They are most likely to receive big EU cash injections if they are poorer than average, or if they have large, inefficient farming sectors.

The amount of EU funding allocated to the Irish Republic will change following the accession of ten new, poorer countries in May.

The average GDP per head of these countries is 40% of the average level in the existing 15 EU member states.