The term ‘services’ refers to a disparate group of occupations which, together, comprise the so-called ‘tertiary’ sector of economic activity. What distinguishes service activities from those in the primary (extraction of resource from the natural environment) and secondary (transformation of natural resources into usable products) sectors is that they are not directly involved in the production of material goods. The European Union’s General Industrial Classifi cation of Economic Activities (generally known as the NACE classifi cation), as adapted by Ireland’s Central Statistics Offi ce, subdivides services into nine broad categories: wholesale and retail trade; hotels and restaurants; transport, storage and communications; banking and fi nancial services; real estate, renting and business activities; education; health and social work; and a residual ‘other services’ category. Other, more conceptual classifi cations distinguish, on the one hand, between consumer services (provided to the general public) and producer services (provided to businesses) and, on the other, between ‘physical’ services (e.g., transport, retailing, restaurants) and ‘informational’ services (e.g., administration, research, education, audiovisual entertainment). Indeed, so important have information-related activities become in modern advanced economies that it has been suggested that they should be allocated to a separate ‘quaternary’ sector of economic activity (Gottmann, 1961).