Kieran O'Donnell (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

There is a credibility built up between the CSO and individual companies in Ireland. The level of detail required by the EU cannot be provided unless the CSO gives a level of micro detail. Mr. Dalton makes the argument very coherently. It is a long road but the CSO is obviously briefing all the relevant parties. I will take it back to our own party also.

I have two questions on the CSO statistics, and especially the analysis on employment and unemployment. When Ireland had a hiatus in GDP growth what was the eventual detailed, valid and logical explanation? Was it the patent cliff? Is that the logical explanation?

My second question concerns the CSO's analysis of the employment and unemployment figures where a person who works one hour per week is considered to be employed. Does the CSO do any sub-data to provide details on categories of the hours that are worked and does the CSO make distinctions around part-time and short-term working and so on? It may not be visible but it may be in some sub-report of the CSO. I contact the CSO office in Cork quite a lot and the staff are excellent.