Mr. Aebhric McGibney:

The Deputy is correct that if the data is produced and then made available publicly, that would be a great help. I mentioned the 2009 estimate on capital spending per head. That is no longer able to be updated because the data is not produced to allow the analysis. We have evidence of the city making more of its data freely available to applications and to companies to analyse, and that is a good example. It is a commercial choice for Dublin City Council and the other local authorities, because they can sell the data.

The real data problem we are facing here from a transport and land-use perspective is that we are working off the 2011 census. The 2016 census is out but the data on where people live, where they go to work and how long it takes them will not be out until next year. If we could progress that - if it is a matter of resources available - we should, if open data could solve that problem. There are huge sensitivities in census data and such, but there may be a way to progress that which we should consider.

We need those data urgently to know where people live, where they go to work and how long it takes them to get there in order to find that solution. It is the real and critical problem we face. The Deputy referred to the point about the congestion cost in Dublin. It is worth recording that this was an analysis produced by the NTA. The last published analysis by its predecessor in 1999 indicated a congestion cost in Dublin of £500 million in punts, or over €1 billion in current terms. It is quite a conservative estimate. If it is going from €350 million now to €2 billion in 2030, it is still a very conservative estimate of the cost of what we call "congestion". The long-run future for the evolution of any city will be more to do with public transport, better planning of transport and housing and ensuring public transport is viable by having the density to support it.