Tom Kitt (Dublin South, Fianna Fail)

The employment heading covers all persons engaged by public bodies, including full-time employees, permanent and temporary, part-time employees and persons on holidays, maternity leave or temporary absence due to illness. The CSO is carrying out a new survey to measure earnings more comprehensively. The information from this survey will be more comprehensive than the statistics available from the current range of surveys and the main results will include trends in employee earnings and employers' labour costs. Information will also be compiled on employment job turnover, job vacancies and the number of employees on the minimum wage. A breakdown of the results by sector and broad occupational group will also be available. The CSO is, therefore, bringing many new statistics into play.

I propose to refer briefly to the new information available on women at work from the quarterly national household survey. The survey indicates that 25,000 additional married women, primarily in the 45 to 54 years age group, are at work. Much of the data and many of the issues raised by Deputy Boyle will be useful for future planning purposes.

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