Employers' group IBEC has claimed that the recent cold weather has cost around €700m in lost economic output.
Its survey also said companies have reported a 12.9% rate of absenteeism because of the bad weather since the start of January.
IBEC said the percentage of daily work hours lost since the beginning of the year was 17.4%, and the percentage of sales lost was 18.8%. It also says that production was down by 12%.
IBEC's survey estimates that €500m of the €700m lost to the economy was linked to the services sector and €200m to manufacturing.
The employers' group points out that while of this lost output will be recovered as business returns to normal, a sizeable proportion will be not be recovered and will represent a permanent loss to the economy. It estimates this loss at €200-300m.
IBEC based these figures on 261 responses received by noon yesterday to a survey sent last Friday to a random sample of its members.
