Regina Doherty (Meath East, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank Deputy Adams but do not agree with him that there is a race to the bottom. There obviously is a flux and a change with regard to the economic climate that has being dealt on the country for the past ten years and certain people have taken advantage of that. However, it is the job of the Government to make sure it puts in place policies that recognise people do so and fix it.

In response to Deputy Micheál Martin, I expect the quantum survey results to be available by the end of the year and, as soon as I receive them, they will be laid before the House and will be available to the Deputy. This morning, I asked the very question asked by the Deputy as to why one cannot simply approach an organisation such as the Office of the Revenue Commissioners, which collects all the data with regard to people in employment. It was explained to me it is not quite as simple as that because although the Revenue Commissioners are charged with collecting tax, they do not collect the exact data that would be necessary to provide the statistics the Deputy and I would need. It was brought to my attention that, thankfully, almost 2 million people are employed in Ireland and to conduct a survey of a size that would provide exact statistical data would be an enormous task. On an annual basis, the CSO conducts a survey with 30,000 businesses, which is a mammoth task for it to do each year. The CSO explained to me that, in Swords, the office is working with 2 million pieces of paper - perhaps it was 200 million pieces of paper - arising from the census results and, consequently, it would be an extremely large project to ascertain the wages and standards of each employee in the country. That is why the CSO works on statistical trends because obviously there is a huge variance between the cost of obtaining the information on the 2 million employees and what can be done with samples. However, as soon as I have to hand the results from the quantum survey, I will give the Deputy the nod and will let him know when it is ready.

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