Tommy Broughan (Dublin North East, Labour)
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To ask the Taoiseach the number of companies operating here that have 500 employees or more; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [50861/12]

Paul Kehoe (Wexford, Fine Gael)
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The latest time period for which data is available is 2010. In that year there were 204 enterprises operating in Ireland that had 500 persons engaged or greater. Of these, 162 were public or private limited companies and 42 were other legal forms of ownership.

These figures are based on the CSO's Central Business Register and the following definitions apply:

1. Persons engaged include employees, proprietors and family members. Employees are persons who are paid a fixed wage or salary. Persons at work or temporarily absent because of illness, holidays, strike etc. are included in the definition while persons working on a labour-only subcontract basis are excluded. Proprietors and family members are those proprietors, partners and members of their families who work regularly in the firm and are not paid a definite wage or salary.

2. A public or private limited company is a private or publicly quoted joint stock company with limited liability for those owning shares.

3. Other legal forms of ownership include a) personally owned limited and unlimited liability partnerships, b) individual proprietorships which are personally owned and have no limit to personal liability and c) other legal forms such as cooperatives, associations etc.