Business in Ireland 2022 – Insights on Economic Activity and Performance

Introduction

Business in Ireland is a thematic publication released by the Central Statistics Office (CSO). This publication outlines the key statistics for the Irish business economy in 2022.

This release draws on data from the Structural Business Surveys, Business Demography, and Foreign Affiliate Statistics to analyse the number of enterprises, employment and performance across the sectors of Industry, Construction, Distribution, and Services.

Data Sources

Structural Business Statistics provides details of individual surveys in the Structural Business Economy i.e. Census of Industrial Production, Annual Services Inquiry, and Building & Construction Inquiry. Data is also taken from Business Demography and Foreign Affiliate Statistics.

Business Demography

The data for Business Demography are based on the CSO Central Business Register. The Business Register is a register of all enterprises that are active in the State. There is no lower size limit, but for practical reasons, Business Demography data are based on enterprises that are registered with the Revenue Commissioners. New businesses are identified by Employer, Corporation Tax or Income Tax registrations. 

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Census of Industrial Production Enterprises

The Census of Industrial Production (CIP) covers all enterprises which are wholly or principally involved in industrial production. This survey is carried out on an annual basis. Administrative data are used for some micro enterprises which are not surveyed as well as non-respondents across all case sizes. 

The scope of the Census extends to NACE Rev. 2 sections B, C, D, and E. See table 1 below for details of the full range of activities.

Building and Construction Inquiry

The Building and Construction Inquiry (BCI) was introduced in 2009 for reference year 2008 onwards and replaced the Census of Building and Construction (CBC). The CBC covered all private firms with 20 or more persons engaged whose main activity was building, construction or civil engineering (i.e. Section F of NACE Rev. 2). The BCI extended this coverage to also include a sample of private firms with less than 20 persons engaged. Administrative data are used for some micro enterprises which are not surveyed as well as non-respondents across all case sizes. 

The Business Register is used as the sampling frame for the BCI.

Annual Services Inquiry

The Annual Services Inquiry has been conducted as an annual survey of both distributive and non-distributive services since 1991. Results are published aggregated by the type of activity (NACE), region, size class, etc. All enterprises with one or more persons engaged are included. Administrative data are used for some micro enterprises which are not surveyed as well as non-respondents across all case sizes.

The survey covers all enterprises in NACE Rev. 2 sectors G, H, I, J, K, L, M, N, P, Q, R, and S (excluding S94). See table 1 below for details of the full range of activities.

Since 2021 "Market Producer" (as defined in point 3.24 of Chapter 3 of Annex A to Regulation (EU) No 549/2013) from Groups P-S excluding S94 are included. The other EU Countries include NACE groups G-R (excluding S94).

Since 1995 the CSO’s Central Business Register provides the sampling frame, from which the Annual Services Inquiry sample is selected each year.

Foreign Affiliate Statistics

FATS refers to foreign-based affiliates that are controlled by an institutional unit resident in another country. Outward FATS is when the institutional unit resides in Ireland and has foreign affiliates abroad while Inward FATS is when the institutional unit resides abroad and has foreign affiliates in Ireland. FATS extends to enterprises in NACE Rev. 2 sections B-S (excluding O and S94).

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Definitions

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. Persons working on a labour-only subcontract basis are excluded.

Manual Employees comprise skilled operatives, apprentices and unskilled operatives.

Other Employees comprise supervisory staff (foremen and supervisors), managerial, technical and clerical (male and female) employees.

Proprietors and family members, included here are those proprietors, partners etc. and members of their families who work regularly in the firm and are not paid a definite wage or salary.

Wages and salaries is the gross amount paid to employees before deduction of income tax, employees' social security contributions etc. plus payments to labour-only subcontractors. Overtime pay, bonuses, holiday pay and sick pay are included.

Acquisitions and sales of capital assets where Capital assets are defined as new and second-hand goods with an expected life of more than one year intended for use by the firm itself. Acquisitions include both purchases and construction by the firm itself of capital goods for its own use.

Production value represents the net selling value of work done during the year, whether sold or not. It is valued exclusive of VAT. It incorporates an element of double counting arising from the fact that work done on a subcontract basis by firms in a particular sector for other firms in the same sector is included in the turnover figures provided by both firms. However, in the calculation of Gross Value Added (GVA) and variable 43 (value of work done by own staff) this double counting is eliminated.

Intermediate consumption represents the value of building materials, fuel, industrial services and other goods and services used in production. The definition of this variable has been changed from that given in the 1981 results (Statistical Bulletin, March 1985) to include payments to subcontractors as part of the cost of industrial services, thereby eliminating double counting from the GVA figures.

GVA can be expressed at Factor Cost or at Basic Prices. GVA at Basic Prices is the gross income from operating activities while GVA at Factor Cost is the gross income from operating activities adjusting for operating subsidies and indirect taxes. In the Business in Ireland Summary Results release GVA is expressed at Factor Cost.

Use of Administrative Data

For every non-respondent or non-surveyed enterprise a survey return is created using tax information. The primary financial value the survey uses is profit/loss data with estimates for labour costs added to arrive at a value for GVA. This is derived from the administrative data. Other financial variables normally received from the survey form are estimated using actual survey returns as the data is not available from the administrative data. This is done using ratio estimators. A basic example of the concept would be the ratio of turnover to GVA. If for a particular NACE the ratio of turnover to GVA is 4:1, we would simply multiply the derived administrative GVA by 4 to give us a turnover value.

From reference year 2019 onwards the real-time PAYE Modernisation (PMOD) dataset is used for labour costs, rather than using estimates.

Classifications

NACE Rev. 2 Classification

NACE Rev. 2 is the statistical classification of economic activities. NACE is an acronym for ‘Nomenclature Généraile des Activités Économiques dans les Communautés Européenes’ (General Industrial Classification of Economic Activities within the European Communities).

Broad Structure of NACE Rev. 2

The information presented in this report covers the Industry, Construction, Distributive Trade, and Services sectors. The following highlights the composition of these sectors in this report:

Table 1 Composition of Sectors
Section	Sector	Description
Section B	Industry	Mining and quarrying
Section C	Industry	Manufacturing
Section D	Industry	Electricity, gas, steam, and air conditioning supply
Section E	Industry	Water supply; sewerage, waste management and remediation activities
Section F	Construction	Construction
Section G	Distributive Trade	Section G Wholesale and retail trade; repair of motor vehicles and motorcycles G45 Wholesale and retail trade and repair of motor vehicles and motorcycles G46 Wholesale trade, except of motor vehicles and motorcycles G47 Retail trade, except of motor vehicles and motorcycles
Section H	Services	Transportation and storage
Section I	Services	Accommodation and food service activities
Section J	Services	Information and communication
Section K	Services	Financial and insurance activities
Section L	Services	Real estate activities
Section M	Services	Professional, scientific, and technical activities
Section N	Services	Administrative and support service activities
Section P	Services	Education
Section Q	Services	Human health and social work activities
Section R	Services	Arts, entertainment, and recreation
Section S	Services	Other service activities

Size Class

Table 2 Employment size classes
Size class	Description
Small and medium enterprises (SMEs)	Fewer than 250 persons employed
Micro	Fewer than 10 persons employed
Small	Between 10 and 49 persons employed
Medium	Between 50 and 249 persons employed
Large	More than 249 persons employed