"Tickets please," shouted the collector on the train journey from Dublin to Cork. Four times the ticket had been given up for inspection. Each time a new set of punches appeared. I enquired of the ticket inspector if this was really necessary. "Rules and regulations sir, I don't make them, I simply carry out my instructions," he said. Across from me a fellow passenger sat reading the paper. The headline intrigued me - 300,000 immigrants needed, 70,000 jobs unfilled at any one time. Ireland needs workers.

It made me think about how we use our resources. How much time is spent by people punching holes in tickets, collecting information that may never be used? How much time is spent complying with sets of regulations that may not be of benefit to anyone?

I began to list the various regulatory and legislative requirements that any business, large or small, must comply with. These relate to PAYE, PRSI, VAT, corporation tax, social insurance, employment legislation, import and export documents, central bank regulations, stamp duties, freedom of information, companies legislation, and so on.

To fully comply with these alone, a business owner would have to read almost one million words and answer 100,000 questions a year. To test the analysis I call a typical small company. The company employs 28 people exporting high volume, low-margin, engineering products.

"Bureaucracy - is it a problem?" I enquire. I am told that to fulfil the export-import documentation, value-added and inter-state forms alone, a high level of linguistic skill is a prerequisite and being a competent mathematician would not go astray.

This company will have as many as 80 forms running to over 150 feet in length to process. This increases to over 5,000 feet when multiplied by the number of times the forms have to be completed annually.

However, that's only the tip of the iceberg. It is the number of hours filling forms that this company spends every day, week and month of the year that astonishes me. The figures become really staggering when applied to the entire business base. Currently Ireland has 11,000 exporting companies, who generally have the same compliance requirements. This is the equivalent of 4,000 workers' output.

There are a further 160,000 companies who are not exporting but will still have substantial compliance burdens of between seven and nine hours weekly. This is the output of a further 37,000 workers filling in forms. Factor in a further 8,000 workers to process this information. That makes a conservative 49,000 people working to provide the State and its agencies with information.

At the same time, Ireland is gripped by a labour and skill shortage, with State employees travelling the world to attract 300,000 foreign workers to our shores. No doubt with the necessary forms in hand.

There may be an easier solution - a solution that will not require 300,000 immigrants. This solution would free up thousands of our existing workforce. The solution is less regulation, or at least regulation that is aimed at the right level. Regulations impose burdens on the State also, through explanation and enforcement of often complex rules. Administrative simplification would save time, money and staff effort for Government itself, as well as making life more straightforward for everyone.

Undue regulation inhibits growth, particularly of employment, and an overly heavy compliance environment distracts attention from running a business and reduces the State's ability to provide value-added services. It would be foolish to suggest that we don't need regulation, but we must balance the State's needs against all the other needs and concerns of society and business. Unfortunately for us all, Ireland has not seriously tackled the problem of excessive bureaucracy.

The issue is the focus of an EU-wide initiative seeking to reduce the burdens on business across the community. However, the issues that directly affect us all could be solved at home by the simple application of a "with or without" test for each form that we are asked to complete.

Using this planned and concerted approach, the UK has abolished 2,500 forms and simplified a further 3,000 over the past 10 years. So reducing the number and variety of regulations would provide direct economic benefits. The evidence shows that while individual regulations may themselves be minor, the cumulative effect is time-consuming and costly. The impact of bureaucratic compliance is taking its toll on all of us because it diverts precious time and energy that would be far better used in generating products, services, sales - and, in the end, productive jobs.

Pat Delaney is the director of the Small Firms Association