Mr. Pádraig Dalton:

Broadly speaking, the IESS regulation will bring the quarterly national household survey, the QNHS, or labour force survey - at a European level it is the labour force survey - in under the broader framework. There are no significant changes proposed to the labour force survey. The biggest challenges for us around the labour force survey, and around all household surveys, is exactly what the Deputy has referred to, which is the risk that at European level we decide to overburden these surveys. The CSO is continuously engaging at a European level in always trying to convey the message that when we are engaging with people or with households, it must be acknowledged that people are very busy now. Trying to maintain high levels of response rates is perhaps the biggest challenge for us now in the labour force survey and in all our household surveys. That is the biggest issue. My colleagues, Mr. McMahon and Mr. Ring, manage the labour force survey.