Catherine Murphy (Kildare North, Social Democrats) | Oireachtas source

A report was carried out by Indecon. It very clearly said that, if this was going to be replaced, there should be an interim measure in place because this information is required for good governance. The CSO is very fussy about its information and rightly so. Some of the statistics in respect of the Garda have even been put under qualification because there are concerns as to their reliability. For the CSO to find this to be of such value really reinforces the need for it. A partial replacement is not enough. We should have an actual replacement or we should reconsider bringing it back. An unpopulated database is obviously of no value because there are no datasets. There would be quite a lot of work involved in repopulating if it were to be brought back but the platform is there to do it.