Rose Conway Walsh (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I thank Mr. Dalton for his very informative presentation. I wish to discuss the European collection instruction, particularly around the gathering of data on gender based violence. I would have major concerns about that and I am glad that the CSO consulted the Rape Crisis Centre. I suggest that if there are any moves in that direction, there are very useful statistics gathered by Safe Ireland and that anything that is done in the area should be done through Safe Ireland and Women's Aid in order to protect women. Having worked in the area I can see that one needs to be cognisant of a great many safety issues.

The CSO identified a level shift in GDP of 26% in 2015. I certainly think the CSO has done this country and others globally an enormous service in exposing what it did. I know the discomfort around the publication of such a figure because it would hold us up for ridicule in terms of what was being produced. It was very important that the CSO stuck to its guns in terms of the integrity of the findings and exposing that. It is useful information in terms of letting us know how we are exposed as a country in terms of the 75 multinational companies and the concentration of and over-reliance on the activities of multinational companies that can move. In the context of Brexit and related issues, this information is invaluable.

We have discussed the metric, and I have thought for a long time about measurement in the European context and how useful is information on GDP and even GNP in terms of our measurements. I am glad that our statistics are feeding into the global statistics. In Mr. Dalton's opinion, how long will it take before we have a metric that will have a legal basis? I know the level shift of 26% in GDP cost us more than €200 million. I wonder what it might cost us in the future if the shift was the other way round and we were to be exposed to the bond markets? I think that might cost us a great deal more than €200 million. Are we talking about months and years before we come up with a metric? Can we come up with a metric that is solely on a European level or does it have to be a global metric?