Firms spend up to €42,500 to meet Covid requirements, according to CSO
Small businesses spent on average €4,000 on Covid-19 measures to comply with requirements for trading, according to the Central Statistics Office.
The findings of its latest survey on the impact of the pandemic on businesses, show the cost of implementing measures varied by the size of the enterprise.
Micro enterprises, which have less than 10 staff members had an average spend of €500, while small enterprises with between 10 and 49 staff members had a median spend of €4,000.
The average spend increased to €10,000 for medium sized businesses and €42,500 for large enterprises.
The online survey was sent to 3,000 businesses, with just over 27% responding.
92% of enterprises that responded were trading in some capacity on 28 June, 7.4% had ceased trading temporarily, while 0.5% had ceased trading permanently.
The survey found that just over 30% of the enterprises indicated that they had used temperature screening in the workplace in response to Covid-19, while nearly 47% said they had used PPE.
Over 61% of respondents reported a reduction in turnover of 10% or more during the four-week period from 1 June to 28 June, compared to normal expectations.
However, one-third of businesses reported an increase in turnover following the easing of restrictions on 8 June.
Among the enterprises that responded to the survey, 58% of staff were working at their normal location, while almost 27% were working remotely.
During the four weeks from 1 June to 28 June, the survey shows that an average of 19.1% of the workforce returned from temporary leave while 7.1% returned from remote working to their normal place of work.
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