Vol. 538 No. 4
9 Mr. Quinn asked the Taoiseach if he proposes to have the Central Statistics Office devise a comprehensive set of questions designed to give a detailed profile of the information technology industry here, including the precise number of companies, the type of company, the number of employees, the nature of the ownership, whether national or non-national; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [8729/01]
The information and communications technology sector – ICT – is defined by the OECD and EUROSTAT as covering eight sectors in the manufacturing industry and a further 11 sectors in the service industry.
These ICT sectors are already covered as part of existing CSO inquiries. The ICT manufacturing industry sectors are covered by the annual census of industrial production. The ICT services sectors are covered as part of the existing annual services sample inquiry. All the information referred to by the Deputy is being collected through these inquiries. The information has already been published for the manufacturing sectors and some has been published for the services sectors.
I hesitate to quarrel with the Minister of State but the information given to me is that there is not a set of questions designed to give a detailed profile of the information technology industry, including the precise number of companies, the type of company, the number of employees and whether the ownership is national or non-national. I may have misunderstood the Minister of State's reply and I appreciate he is not directly responsible for its formulation. However, given the shake out in the IT sector internationally and nationally, it has been formally communicated to me that it is difficult to formulate policy because of the imprecise nature of the statistical information available.
Perhaps the briefing information available to the Minister of State can elaborate on his formal reply. I am informed that notwithstanding the fact that we have invested a lot of time, energy and political commitment we simply do not have the information that is requested in my former question. The reply is unsatisfactory, but if the Mini ster of State wishes to come back to me on another day I would be happy with that.
Before I received and studied the file I had the same impression as Deputy Quinn, that we did not know the number of firms in software and so on that were involved in development. I have given the House the information I have been sent over so far but I will go back and check on it again. I have a supplementary note which states that among the information being collected by the CSO inquiry is the number of firms, the type of firms, whether an enterprise or one of a number of local units into which the enterprise is split, the number of employees, and the nationality of the ownership. Other information collected includes labour costs, turnover, purchase of stocks and so on. It goes on to say that software consultancy and supply are included in the ICT sector but that the software manufacturing industry is not part of it as internationally defined. It seems to indicate that that information is there and a table I have in my possession states the number of enterprises, turnover, gross value added, wages and salaries and persons employed on the manufacturing side – it seems to deal more with the manufacturing side. I will take the Deputy's invitation to revisit it if I may.
I appreciate the Minister of State's co-operation and I fully understand that he is not responsible for the compilation of these statistics. Did I understand correctly the Minister of State to say that a survey is being undertaken at present to establish this information or that the information already exists? It was not clear from his second reply. Could he repeat it?
I am told that it already exists in the CSO inquiries, that is, the ICT manufacturing survey recorded by the annual census of industrial production and the ICT services sector, recorded as part of the existing annual services sample inquiry. As I said, I will revisit it.
Is it the case that they are all lumped together and that it is very hard to get the accurate information that is required in regard to the specific areas that Deputy Quinn asked about?
Exactly.
I am told that services inquiry is a sample inquiry of services enterprises and that all large enterprises are covered with decreasing sample rates for smaller enterprises. The variables covered by this inquiry cover employment, labour costs, turnover, purchases, stocks, changes in capital assets and, in some cases, the nationality of the ownership. Results are classified by region and by nationality of ownership, but the latter has not yet been published, so I need to revisit that aspect of it.
