Mr. Stephen Mulvany:

I meant no disrespect to Deputy Durkan or any of the other member when I referred to the complex nature of using OECD statistics. I simply wished to point out that these statistics are complex. I did not intend to be defeatist.

It is something we need to get to the bottom of and we need to be able to say how we compare. My point is that it should be done by an expert body to be credible, perhaps by the Economic and Social Research Institute, ESRI, and it may already be in some work it is doing. The Deputy is correct in that Ireland has a comparatively younger population but it is ageing faster than other European Union countries. Unfortunately, in terms of healthcare costs, the younger population does not counterbalance the elderly population. Younger people typically have a lower draw on healthcare costs than the elderly, particularly outside the first year of life.