Hildegarde Naughton (Galway West, Fine Gael)
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The Central Statistics Office (CSO) has responsibility for collating information on the number of enterprises which close each year as part of its work in developing and maintaining the Central Business Register. The register is developed using data provided by the Companies Registration Office (CRO) and the Revenue Commissioners.

An enterprise closure (referred to as an enterprise death) is subject to a number of conditions being met:

-It involves the dissolution of a combination of production factors e.g. cessation of trading;

-It does not arise where there is a change in activity;

-There can be no involvement of other enterprises i.e. mergers, takeovers, break-ups or restructuring within a set of enterprises.

Data for the years to 2010 to 2020 is included in tabular form below in Table 1.These data do not include the activities of holding companies (NACE K64.20). As an enterprise death is only counted if it is not reactivated, the data for 2020 are provisional pending finalisation of the data for 2021, i.e. that the enterprise remains closed.

Guidance on NACE sectors and the associated descriptions is included in Table 2 for reference.

Table 1: Number of Small and Medium Enterprises (less than or equal to 250 persons engaged) which closed each year, 2010 to 2019

Note: Includes NACE Sectors B – N (excluding K64.20)

Note: * Break in series from 2017

Note: ** Preliminary data only

Table 2: NACE Sectors reference