DUNNES STORES has lost a High Court challenge aimed at halting its prosecution over allegedly failing to supply the Central Statistics Office (CSO) with statistical information on the supermarket chain’s trade.
The CSO had sought the information under laws allowing the State to compile statistics on national trade, financial and balance of payments information. Dunnes challenged the validity of the information requests and claimed providing such information was unduly burdensome and could damage its business.
Mr Justice Iarfhlaith O’Neill yesterday dismissed Dunnes’s judicial review challenge to the lawfulness of a direction from the director general of the CSO requiring it to provide information on a quarterly basis in relation to its group activities for 2006 and 2007.
The CSO sought the information under the Statistics (Balance of Payments and Financial Accounts) Order 2005, made by the Minister for State at the Department of the Taoiseach on February 6th, 2005.
Dunnes was served with six summonses in October 2007 for alleged breaches of the Statistics (Balance of Payments and Financial Accounts) Orders 2005, but those proceedings have stood adjourned pending the High Court case. The company could be fined up to €25,395 if convicted and up to €1,269 per day for any continuing breach.
The CSO had requested Dunnes to complete two statistical forms on a quarterly basis relating to its group activities for 2006 and 2007 – a balance of payments survey of manufacturing and non-financial services companies, and a balance of payments survey of trade in service and royalties.
Dunnes claimed it completes its accounts on an annual basis and it was an excessive burden to submit statistical returns on a quarterly basis. As a private company, it claimed the release of confidential information could be highly damaging to its business.
It alleged the information was unnecessary and in excess of the powers of the CSO.
The CSO claimed the information was essential to overall information on the economy and was required to comply with the country’s international obligations on provision of trade data.
Yesterday Mr Justice O’Neill rejected claims by Dunnes that the function of providing for the frequency of the returns had been impermissibly delegated to the CSO director general when it was a function reserved for the Taoiseach or his Minister of State.
The judge said the Statistics Act 1993 made a clear distinction between the roles of the Taoiseach/Minister of State and that of the director general. The latter was responsible for the running of the CSO, and the function of the Taoiseach/Minister of State was to exercise a supervisory role and make relevant regulations.
He ruled the 1993 Act empowers the Minister of State to prescribe by order the frequency with which information is to be provided to the director general.
