Arthur Morgan (Louth, Sinn Fein)
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Question 75: To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment the number of small and medium enterprises here; the number of SMEs here as a percentage of total companies here; the percentage of the workforce that these SMEs employ; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [32004/09]

Billy Kelleher (Cork North Central, Fianna Fail)
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Statistical information as sought by the Deputy is not collected through my Department. Responsibility for statistical information rests with the Central Statistics office (CSO). The CSO have provided the information as set out in the table. The information relates to 2007 and is based on information coming from the CSO Business Demography 2007 report. This figure is taken from the CSO Business Register and includes enterprises that were active at some stage during the year 2007.

The CSO figures above do not include some NACE Code sectors that are not yet covered reliably on the Business Register. The current CSO figures are different from some of the figures previously quoted (i.e. 233,200) in the supporting material to the Report of the Small Business Forum (SBF). The numbers of enterprises that are not included in the CSO figures above but which are included in the supporting material to the Report of the Small Business Forum (SBF) amount to an overall total of approximately 45,400. The sectors and numbers involved are J - Financial Services (8,100), M - Education (4,700), N – Health (11,100) and O - Other Services (21,500). In addition the CSO figures only include businesses which are active on Revenue records. The two main Revenue sources used are VAT payments and employer registrations. Businesses are included in the population of active enterprises for the year 2007 if they pay VAT to Revenue or are registered as an employer with Revenue. So enterprises that have no employees, and are either below the VAT threshold or exempt from VAT, would have been included in the earlier SBF figures but are excluded from the CSO Business Demography report.

Since the CSO figure includes enterprises that were active at any stage during the year 2007, these figures are not affected by the economic downturn.

CSO is continuing to improve and expand its Business Register in order to collect and publish more extensive information.

Table: CSO Information Relating to 2007