Michael McGrath (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I welcome Mr. Dalton and his colleagues from the CSO. Like Deputy Pearse Doherty, I commend the organisation on the work it does. The information it provides is an invaluable source and resource for all of us, and I use its website regularly. I thank the CSO for all of the work being done.

To start with regulation COM 551, does the CSO envisage this will have an impact on, for example, the quarterly national household survey in Ireland, which is the benchmark survey in terms of household measures? I want to raise a concern in regard to surveys generally and imposing greater requirements on those being surveyed. The CSO relies on the goodwill of participants. We have done that survey in my own household so I know it is an imposition and takes time, given it is not just one visit but a series of visits. My point is that the more the CSO adds to it, the more that goodwill will be eroded and it will become hard to get people to participate. Will that survey change as a result of either of these regulations?