Mr. Michael McCarthy:

I thank the Deputy for his thoughtful questions. In relation to the information itself, we do profile visits. As chair, I do scrutiny visits with the local authorities. We have pretty much most of them completed at this point. The process involves us meeting with the local authority and the local authority then coming to meet with the full board. We build the profile based on the information they give us. That is where we primarily get our information and our statistics.

I accept the Deputy's broader point on statistics and data information. Sometimes the latter can be quite complex and confusing. It is important to see, in tabulated form, information that is easy to interpret around a net gain of 74 or 55. We pull that information by virtue of the visits and interaction we have with local authorities.

In the context of preliminary reporting, it depends on a number of factors. It depends on how many local authorities have sent information to us. Again, there might be a cycle in terms of their workload whereby they are perhaps operating in the context of a different timeframe. I am not saying "No"; I am favourably disposed to the idea. In terms of the practicalities, however, we need to consider what we would get and whether it would be lopsided if we did not have complete information or figures from all of the local authorities. The short answer is that we are open to that if it is workable from the point of view of meeting deadlines and getting information from different local authorities.