Ms Fiona Quinn:

I thank the Deputy. The data piece is one of my areas of responsibility. It is three or three and a half years since we established a statistics and data analytics unit in the Department. Many of the improvements that have been seen in recent years have come from the availability of experts to help us manage the data. The volume of data with which we deal has grown exponentially. As our activities grow, the volume of our data grows. We absolutely recognise that there is a need for continued improvement in that area. The Department is currently working on a data strategy to drive continued reform. There has been much improvement but we certainly acknowledge that there is further to go on that journey and the statement of departmental strategy will call out the focus on a data strategy for the period ahead.

The Deputy asked about Rebuilding Ireland and its future. There is a good 13 months left in the strategy and much delivery to come in that time. We will be turning our minds to that early next year. The programme for Government, as I said, calls out a considerable amount of objectives and actions for the Department but we will have to turn our minds to the specific status of Rebuilding Ireland early next year.

I think that is probably all I have to say. As I noted in my opening statement, there are also overarching data pieces. We are engaged with and embedded in the open data strategy and the Government's data strategies. The importance of delivery on each of those will be reflected in the statement of strategy.