asked the Taoiseach what is the purpose of the 354-page document entitled Trade and Shipping Statistics, 1963; and if he will indicate the total costs of the 1962 edition of this book, the number printed, the number sold, selling price and loss to the exchequer arising from its production.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Trade and Shipping Statistics.
4.
Trade and Shipping Statistics, 1963 is one of a series of reports on Irish external trade available for each year since 1924. It it the only publication containing detailed commodity and country of origin/destination data relating to external trade in 1963 and is used extensively in various Government Departments, by foreign Embassies and by numerous commercial firms at home and abroad. Within the Central Statistics Office it is in continuous use in dealing with inquiries by commercial concerns, preparing replies to Parliamentary Questions, etc. where comparable data covering a number of years are frequently required. Were such a volume not provided the monthly Trade Statistics publication would have to be considerably expanded to meet the requirements of many users of the data and this would both considerably increase the cost of these publications and also delay their issue.
The cost of printing the 1962 Edition was £3,371 and 650 copies were produced. Of these 115 were sold and the majority of the rest were either supplied free of charge to other Government Departments, etc., or were sent on an exchange basis to other national or international statistical offices. The selling price was 10s 6d. It is not possible to segregate the cost to the Office of the clerical and other work involved in the preparation of this report.