Trevor Sargent (Dublin North, Green Party)

Will the Government learn any lessons from the CSO report? To whom was the Minister of State, Deputy Kitt, referring when he mentioned positive feedback? Were a number of people charged with responsibility for giving feedback or is he making a more general point?

Is the Government taking any lessons from the CSO figures? I note that Ireland has the second lowest unemployment rate and this is generally a clarion call for the Government in that once the unemployment rate is low everything should be fine. Do the other figures further enlighten the Government regarding the matter? There are different definitions of poverty but let us not argue about them. There is clearly a significant number of so-called working poor. These people may be in employment but they are suffering from poverty. Does the Government have plans to either delve into the detail behind these figures or introduce more accurate measurements of quality of life than unemployment, GDP and GNP figures, which can be misleading in terms of people's day-to-day lives? Has the Government looked further at the various countries which have a far more sophisticated measure of the way in which progress is made?

How will the CSO report impact and be utilised under Sustaining Progress? Will it in any way change the Government's pursuit of a consumption-based model to start measuring quality of life in a way that enables us to deal with people's day-to-day challenges as well as issues such as climate change and energy consumption which will further affect our competitiveness? Will the Government address the issue of international competitiveness, which has been deteriorating since 2000? It has been suggested that this has to do with inflation, but does the Government agree that it equally has to do with our very large dependence on oil and high energy consumption compared to other countries on a per capita basis?

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