The Central Statistics Office (CSO) Business Impact of COVID-19 Survey (BICS) shows that 89.4% of responding enterprises were trading in some capacity, 9.6% have temporarily ceased trading while 1.0% had ceased trading permanently on 31 May.

More than a quarter (26.3%) of responding enterprises restarted trading in May. In the construction sector, 58.1% of enterprises restarted trading.

More than seven in ten responding enterprises (71.5%) had a reduction in turnover of 10% or more during the four-week period from Monday 4 May to Sunday 31 May, compared to normal expectations.

Easing

However, 30.9% indicated that their turnover had increased following the easing of restrictions on Monday 18 May.

Almost three quarters (74.2%) of enterprises who responded to the survey indicated that they had rearranged the workplace to facilitate social distancing measures in response to COVID-19 while 37.8% had introduced occupancy limits in the workplace.

More than two fifths (41.3%) of enterprises required mandatory PPE in the workplace.

The results presented in the survey represent responding enterprises only.