Seán Ó Fearghaíl (Kildare South, Fianna Fail)
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Question 98: To ask the Taoiseach his views on correspondence (details supplied) regarding the requirements which the Central Statistics Office places on small businesses; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [25053/09]

Pat Carey (Dublin North West, Fianna Fail)
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The Deputy's question was accompanied by correspondence which contained information on an individual enterprise. The Central Statistics Office (CSO) cannot comment on matters relating to an individual enterprise.

Ireland is obliged under EU law to provide extensive data on business activity to the European Commission and the European Central Bank (Appendix 1 details the main legal obligations). The CSO is the government body mandated to supply these data requirements. In addition, the CSO fulfils data demands from other international bodies such as the OECD and the UN, and also from national users such as government, the social partners, economists, and universities. In the majority of cases, such data requirements cannot be fulfilled by drawing on administrative sources (such as other government bodies) and must be obtained by conducting statistical inquiries directly to businesses.

The Government has set a target of reducing administrative burden on business by 25% by 2012. The Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment is co-ordinating the Government programme to measure and reduce administrative burdens. As part of this overall effort, the CSO has identified the most burdensome regulations and surveys on business and is devoting resources to the Government programme to measure and reduce these administrative burdens.

The CSO recognises that statistical surveys impose an administrative burden on those businesses, particularly small businesses, which are included in surveys.

In its Statement of Strategy 2008-2010, the Central Statistics Office (CSO) identified as a corporate priority the minimising of response burden on CSO inquiry respondents. To achieve this, the CSO is taking a number of actions, including increasing the use of electronic reporting methods, adopting better sampling techniques, increasing the co-ordination between surveys, and making greater statistical use of administrative records. A number of burden-reduction measures have already been implemented. These include reducing sample sizes, reducing the number of questions asked on inquiry forms, instigating changes to payroll software to facilitate the automated completion of inquiries on employment and earnings, and expanding the use of administrative data, especially that of the Revenue Commissioners.

In the context of the overall administrative burden imposed by government regulation, it should be noted various studies suggest that the burden imposed by statistical inquiries is relatively low and only accounts for around 2% of the overall administrative burden. Eurostat studies also show that the statistical burden imposed on businesses in Ireland is consistent with that of other EU member states of a similar size. In the 2006 Business Regulation Survey, conducted by the Economic and Social Research Institute on behalf of the Department of the Taoiseach, 9.4% of businesses reported that making CSO returns was a heavy burden, while 1% of businesses identified CSO returns as the single most significant administrative burden on their business.

Appendix 2 presents figures on the reporting burden imposed on Irish business by the CSO, as taken from the Report on Response Burden placed on Irish Businesses by CSO inquiries in 2008 (published on 23 June 2009):-in 2008, less than one-third (32.8%) of Irish business enterprises were surveyed by the CSO, i.e., more than two-thirds of enterprises did not receive a single CSO inquiry form. If the total number of CSO inquiry forms issued in 2008 is divided by the population of business enterprises, the resulting average is 1.3 CSO inquiry forms received per enterprise. In terms of the time expended on completing CSO inquiries, and again based on the entire population of Irish business enterprises, on average each enterprise spent less than one hour (54.5 minutes) in responding to the various CSO inquiries issued in 2008. These figures are based on time information supplied by business enterprises themselves in returning the inquiry forms. (Refer to Appendix 2 Table A.)

In terms of the distribution of CSO inquiry forms by size of business, the figures in this report demonstrate the efforts made by the CSO to limit the response burden on small businesses. In 2008, just over 70% (70.6%) of Irish businesses employing less than 20 people were not surveyed at all by the CSO (i.e., received no CSO inquiry form), while 20% (20.2%) of businesses in this size category received just one CSO inquiry form; this means that more than 90% of businesses in the smallest size category received a maximum of one CSO inquiry form in the course of 2008. Overall, more than two-thirds (67.2%) of Irish businesses were not surveyed at all by the CSO in 2008. (Refer to Appendix 2 Table B.)