Two thirds of companies recorded on the Companies Registration Office (CRO) books since 1990 as having ceased trading never fulfilled their statutory obligation to file accounts, according to a new survey.

According to the Interface Business survey of the CRO database, 70,355 companies of the 139,002 registered over the past eight years do not have a "normal" status.

Of these, 45,857, or 65 per cent, never filed accounts. No company has been struck off and there are only two companies scheduled to be struck off on the Minister for Finance's list. "Foreign countries which want to trade cannot get correct credit status reports," Mr Kevin Murphy, associate director at Interface Business, said.

He claimed that the failure of companies to file accounts was hampering Irish trade and creating difficulties for many businesses wishing to ascertain the credit status of potential business partners.

The vast majority of failed companies (96 per cent) had traded for at least three years, he said.

"The failure to file accounts with the CRO is a good indicator as to the potential success of a company," he said.

He said that the failure to enforce the Companies Acts properly "discriminates against everybody else who is doing things by the book".