Mr. Dermot Corcoran:

One of the issues we have in the statistics unit, in arriving at finer level breakdowns of some of the statistics, is the eircode coverage rate within the Department, which is not particularly high. In and around 60% of addresses have an eircode. That is a determining factor in how we can use the statistics to break them down further than we can currently.

As to what Mr. Egan said with regard to county breakdowns, some counties have a more predominantly urban profile than others. That might give some indication of the urban and rural issue but the one issue we have with regard to arriving at further breakdowns is the lack of eircodes.