Paul Lawless (Mayo, Aontú)
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2. To ask the Taoiseach if his Department collates statistics on the number of SMEs that have closed down in County Mayo in the past five years; and if so, to outline the figures that reveal how many SMEs closed in Mayo over each of the past five years. [6361/25]

Mary Butler (Waterford, Fianna Fail)
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The Central Statistics Office, CSO, has responsibility for collating information on the number of enterprises that close each year as part of its work in developing and maintaining the CSO's central business register, CBR. The CBR is developed using data provided by the Companies Registration Office, CRO, and the Revenue Commissioners. The most recent data available on enterprise closures from the central business register, published as part of Business in Ireland - Insights on the Lifecycle of Businesses 2022, is for 2021, for preliminary enterprise closures.

This is due to the CSO's approach whereby an enterprise is recorded as having ceased trading where no tax returns have been filed for two successive years, with one year of no returns being recorded. There are a lot of complicated details on the number of SMEs involved. The number of SMEs that closed in 2017 was 687. In 2018, it was 718. The preliminary figure for SME closures in 2021 is 740. I will come back with more detail after the question.

Paul Lawless (Mayo, Aontú)
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I thank the Minister of State for the response. I am surprised by the lack of data on insolvencies in recent years. The issues and the crisis facing the SME sector are getting increasingly worse. A Deloitte study recently found that almost 900 insolvencies occurred in 2024, an increase of almost a third on 2023. It predicted that the increase will continue, as will the issues affecting SMEs. The worst affected sectors are the hospitality, fitness and beauty industries. Since the Government hiked VAT, more than 700 restaurants have closed. This is having a major impact.

Dereliction is an issue right across Mayo. The antidote to dereliction must be to first stem the tide of businesses closing. The fact that the Government has no idea how many businesses have closed and it does not collect that data is of major concern. We need to address this issue. We need to show the same proactive and pro-business approach that the Government has shown to the foreign direct investment sector.

This is a major concern. Businesses in Mayo are struggling - restaurants, shops, pubs, the fitness and beauty sectors and many other areas. It is important we understand that to address dereliction in towns, we must first stem the tide of business losses.

Mary Butler (Waterford, Fianna Fail)
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The reason information is not available is that European business statistics regulation requires data to be transmitted with a two-year time lag. For example, 2022 data were transmitted in June 2024. The CSO is always trying to enhance the timelines of its publications. It is examining new products relating to signs of life for businesses, which it is hoped will provide a timelier picture of enterprise activity.

There is some good news for County Mayo in terms of information on new enterprises that have been created there. County Mayo ranked eighth out of 26 in 2019 for SME births. This is the first time I ever heard that term. It refers to the birth of small and medium enterprises. It was ranked 25th out of 26 in 2020. It was second out of 26 in 2021 and 24th out of 26 in 2022. However, we must put it into context. Much of the country was closed between 2020 and 2022 during the time of Covid. The figure of 740 SME closures in 2021 is preliminary. The statistics also show that as many new businesses started up at the same time.