Rise in cases leading to second lockdown a concern for two-thirds of businesses

59% of staff work remotely for office-based enterprises and 14% for other businesses. File picture: Pexels

More than half of businesses in Ireland have had a reduction in turnover of at least 10%.

The Central Statistics Office also found two-thirds of enterprises are concerned about another lockdown.

The CSO carried out the Business Impact of Covid-19 Survey of 3,000 businesses to assess how they fared between the end of June and end of July.

96.1% of enterprises were trading in some capacity on July 26.

But 54% of businesses said they had a reduction in turnover of 10% or more compared to normal.

34.2% reported turnover at or close to normal expectations, while more than one in ten (11.7%) had higher than normal turnover.

The survey also confirms an increasing number of people are working from home.

59% of staff worked remotely for office-based enterprises and 14% for other businesses.

Non-office based enterprises had an average of 73.8% of staff working at their normal working location compared to 32.9% of staff at office-based enterprises.

Business Impact of Covid-19 Survey. Picture: CSO

More than half of businesses had mandatory PPE for staff and 45% provided them with protective screening.

More than 80% of respondents had increased hygiene measures in the workplace.

78.5% of businesses had rearranged workspace to facilitate social distancing, according to the survey, while 41% had introduced occupancy limits in the workplace.

Concerns


A rise in coronavirus cases leading to a second lockdown was one of the top two concerns for two-thirds of enterprises.

64.1% who responded to the survey had this concern.

The reduced availability of Government supports was a top two concern for 13.3%.

Meanwhile, 46.8% of enterprises were concerned that the pandemic has reduced demand due to lower consumer confidence.

29.8% of respondents reported maintaining cashflow was among their top two concerns.

Just more than one in 10 (10.3%) of enterprises had no immediate concerns.

In more positive terms, 59.5% of responding enterprises expressed confidence in having the financial resources to continue operating for longer than six months.

However, just 4.4% see their business continuing financially for less than a month.

Statistician Colin Hanley said: "It is important to note that the results presented in the survey represent responding enterprises only and are unweighted."