Vol. 436 No. 5
8 Mr. Browne (Carlow-Kilkenny) asked the Taoiseach the reason employers, who already have made returns of VAT, income tax and PRSI, are further burdened by being asked to supply answers to another form called annual service inquiries in view of the fact that Government Departments could compile these figures.
The Central Statistics Office has initiated a series of annual statutory sample inquiries of enterprises in the services sector. The first survey was undertaken in 1992. The principle purpose of these annual inquiries is to provide basic data necessary for the compilation of the national accounts. They were also initiated to generally improve statistics for the services sector identified as a priority development by the National Statistics Board following demands from many users.
The retail and wholesale sectors are covered annually with rotating coverage of other sectors in successive years. The hotels, restaurants and catering sectors were covered in 1992 and the business services sector was covered in 1993. The inquiry covers some 9,700 enterprises in 1993 and seeks a very limited range of information which should be readily available from basic business records.
While it is the objective of the CSO to maximise the use of administrative records for statistical purposes, the information available at present from administrative systems is not sufficient for compiling statistics for the services sector.
(Carlow-Kilkenny): Would the Minister accept that the person who gave me his annual service inquires form has enough to do to keep his drapery business open with the 21 per cent VAT on clothing and the increase in commercial rates that has been imposed due to the fact that the rate support grant is so miserable without having to fill in a form about VAT, stocks, salaries and wages which will cost him money? Most of this can be obtained from information previously supplied through the myriad of forms mentioned already. Is it not absurd that at his expense the State will obtain information which, to those small businessmen from whom this information is sought, will be the final nail in the coffin? More jobs will probably be lost than will be gained eventually because these statistics will more than likely be buried in some room in the Central Statistics Office and will be of no benefit to anyone.
I disagree totally with the Deputy. The Central Statistics Office does not collect statistics in order to bury them somewhere. Statistics are collected, in this case, for the national accounts, Such information is absolutely necessary and the CSO does not collect statistics merely to annoy business people. The statistics are required for a very good reason, often to the benefit of the business sector.
I do not know where the Deputy obtained the annual service inquiries form in question but I do not think it would take much time to answer the eight questions that are on the form, all of which information is readily available to the person, including the number of people he employs in the firm and the annual turnover.
A difficulty arises in relation to the use of administrative records in this case. I agree with the Deputy on one point. We passed a statistics Bill, as he is aware, earlier this year which will allow for the increasing use of administrative records for surveys such as this. However, the information that is needed for this survey cannot be obtained from other records. One might seek such information from the Revenue Commissioners but there are a number of difficulties in relation to that. First, Revenue do not classify businesses at the moment by activity. In addition, total turnover is not available from VAT statistics and so on because some goods are zero rated and would not give an accurate turnover figure. There is a difficulty also in relation to linking details for businesses from the different tax systems.
I assure the Deputy, in the spirit in which the question was asked, that discussions are taking place with Revenue and other Departments to ensure that the administrative systems and records are standardised as far as possible so that we can minimise the amount of form filling that will have to be done by retailers and businessess generally. As the Taoiseach said — the Minister is in the House at the moment — a task force on jobs in the service area has been established and I understand that is giving close attention to the whole area of collecting statistics. Certainly, any recommendations made to me as the person responsible for the Central Statistics Office will be given careful consideration.
(Carlow-Kilkenny): I wish to clarify that I am not knocking the Central Statistics Office. As recently as yesterday it provided me with very valuable information on population, etc. How will the information that is sought from this particular businessman help to create jobs in Ireland? Will this man have to pay his accountant an additional £100 or £200 to supply information that any sane person would object to supplying? That is how most small businessmen feel at the moment and some of them have given up their businesses. I know of two business people who simply gave up, they were getting old and they could not take the hassle any more. They were asked to complete VAT forms, PRSI forms and so on. They were honest people and they worried constantly about having their accounts up to date.
We must bring this question to a conclusion shortly.
At the risk of bringing down the wrath of the accountancy profession on top of me, I do not think any accountant should charge anything extra for providing information that is in the books audited by the accountant beforehand. All that is required is to extract that information. In case the Deputy is not aware, a total of 24 CSO field officers are employed for four months of the year to assist business people who experience difficulties with the form. If the Deputy wishes to give me the names and addresses of people who are having difficulty with this form I will arrange for field officers to call to them.
(Carlow-Kilkenny): They have called twice.
