Denis Naughten (Roscommon-Galway, Independent) | Oireachtas source

The point I am making is that the statistics are there. It is not that we are asking the Department to do something it is not doing already, but I think what has been presented to us is not reflective. For example, some of the statistics that would probably be extremely useful to us as a committee would be those relating to supplementary welfare allowance. That would be a level of statistics in terms of outputs that would be extremely useful to us because it shows across the Department some of the issues Deputy Ó Cuív talks about in terms of the actual impact that payments are having on people in respect of the number of applications that take place. That is just one off the top of my head. I accept the point you make about the timeline that is there and I know that makes it difficult. We are comparing apples and oranges, and I accept that that causes a problem, particularly when looking at median income, which, naturally enough, is dependent on the economy. You are right that the deprivation index, from our perspective, is probably a more useful tool as to what is happening on the ground. If, however, you go back to the performance report in 2019, the deprivation index under each category was reported. The deprivation index is now reported only in respect of retired people. I think the deprivation index would be a more useful measure, from our point of view, as a committee, in looking at this. Sorry - the working-age payment is the one I meant. The deprivation index used to be included in that and now it is not. The data are there.