The High Court has rejected a challenge by Dunnes Stores to regulations under which the Central Statistics Office required the retailer to submit quarterly information about its group activities.
Mr Justice O'Neill ruled on December 17, 2009 that the Statistics (Balance of Payments and Financial Accounts) Order 2005 was within the powers granted by the Statistics Act 1993.
The case arose after the CSO issued six summonses against Dunnes Stores in October 2007 for alleged failures to provide information requested under the 2001 and 2005 balance-of-payments orders. The company had been asked to complete two statistical forms quarterly for 2006 and 2007.
Dunnes Stores, which prepares its accounts annually, argued that quarterly returns imposed an excessive burden and sought confidential commercial information which could damage its business if disclosed. The judicial review ultimately focused on a narrower legal question: whether the 2005 order unlawfully allowed the Director General of the CSO to decide how frequently information had to be supplied.
Section 25 of the 1993 Act requires the relevant minister to prescribe, among other matters, the frequency with which information is to be provided. Article 6 of the 2005 order stated that information could be requested monthly, quarterly, half-yearly or annually.
Dunnes Stores argued that allowing the Director General to choose between those periods amounted to an unlawful sub-delegation of a statutory function reserved to the Taoiseach or Minister of State.
The court disagreed. Mr Justice O'Neill held that the minister had already exercised the statutory function by prescribing the four permitted reporting frequencies. The Director General's role was simply to select the appropriate period from that fixed list when making a particular request under section 26.
The judge described that as an administrative or ministerial function consistent with the Director General's responsibility for the day-to-day operation of the CSO. A request outside the four prescribed periods, such as weekly reporting, would fall outside the order.
The High Court therefore refused Dunnes Stores' application to have the 2005 order declared invalid or quashed.