Maurice Quinlivan (Limerick City, Sinn Fein)
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106. To ask the Taoiseach the number of businesses exporting to Britain; the number of persons employed by these businesses; and the value of this trade in 2015, in tabular form. [48517/17]

Joe McHugh (Donegal, Fine Gael)
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The information on the number of businesses exporting to Great Britain and the numbers of people employed as requested by the Deputy are not available.

Trade in goods data between Ireland and Great Britain is collected via the Intrastat survey, which is carried out by VIMA (Revenue Commissioners) on behalf of the CSO. In order to minimise the burden on enterprises, only those whose exports exceed €635,000 per annum, or whose imports exceed €500,000 per annum are included in the survey. There are around 2,200 exporters and 5,500 importers required to complete this survey on a monthly basis. This covers 98.8% of the total value of exports and 96.5% of the total value of imports.

The CSO makes estimates for the remaining enterprises whose trade is below the threshold level. In 2017, this equates to around 9,800 exporters and 43,000 importers. As detailed data is not available for these enterprises, it is not possible to state how many of these enterprises export to Great Britain, or the employment levels of these enterprises.

The value of Exports to Great Britain in 2015 is shown in table A.

Table A: Exports to Great Britain by division 2015.