Shane Cassells (Meath West, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I am pleased to contribute to this debate and compliment Deputy Brendan Howlin on bringing forward the Bill because there is huge merit in what he has outlined in terms of the measurement of progress in this country. It is hugely relevant in the Ireland of today because of the society that has been created where communities have been built that are devoid of the basic public infrastructure required for a fulfilling family life. One must ask if we are truly assessing how the country is doing if the only metrics used to analyse our current circumstances are the crude tools currently in place. Many in our society have been saddled with massive personal debt through the purchase of their homes.

It is interesting that the debate on Second Stage of the Bill is taking place on this date because on 18 March 1968, almost exactly 40 years ago, Bobby Kennedy made some historic remarks on the subject in the University of Kansas where he addressed the value of gross domestic product and its measurement of the things that mattered. He stated:

Gross National Product counts cigarette advertising ... special locks for our doors and the jails for the people who break them ... armored cars for the police to fight the riots in our cities ... [and] the television programs which glorify violence in order to sell toys to our children. Yet the gross national product does not allow for the health of our children, the quality of their education or the joy of their play. It does not include the beauty of our poetry or the strength of our marriages ... It measures neither our wit nor our courage, neither our wisdom nor our learning, neither our compassion nor our devotion to our country, it measures everything in short, except that which makes life worthwhile.

His words 40 years ago ring true today and for every generation because at some point everybody realises what is important in life. The measurement of goods and services produced is not a true reflection of how we are doing as a society. If we were to canvass in any of the massive housing estates in the country we would see whether those very sterile indicators were a real reflection of how well society was doing. Things may be improving gradually for some in the country but many such as those who fear their mortgages may be offloaded to vulture funds by unscrupulous banks have seen no improvement in their circumstances. The measurement of what is happening to those who have a few more euro in their pockets in society as a whole is not necessarily positive.

Deputy Brendan Howlin mentioned Mr. Simon Kuznets, the economist who developed the first comprehensive set of measuresments of national income. In his report to Congress in 1934 he stated:

Economic welfare cannot be adequately measured unless the personal distribution of income is known. And no income measurement undertakes to estimate the reverse side of income, that is, the intensity and unpleasantness of effort going into the earning of income.

There is huge merit in the Bill and the principles contained within it. It will resonate massively with Irish people who may have good employment, but the circumstances in which they live their lives tell a different story.

We must consider the tools necessary to measure today's society which has been massively altered in the past 20 years, in particular. Hundreds of thousands of people from Dublin are living in counties such as my own, County Meath, as well as counties Kildare, Wicklow, Louth and further afield because they could not find affordable housing in their own county. There is a complete lack of vital public infrastructure in many of the new communities that have been created. I mention this because of the table Deputy Brendan Howlin has outlined in the Bill of the indicators he seeks to measure. Vital social infrastructure is lacking, including child care facilities, libraries, swimming pools and recreational facilities. Health services are at breaking point. This week the local newspaper in my town of Navan ran a front page story about people being turned away from doctors' practices. Many communities are devoid of proper public transport links which would allow the people we have put into the commuter counties to commute to their place of work in the city. Some must rely on existing overburdened public transport services, while in other areas there is simply no service available. My home town of Navan has a population in excess of 35,000 people, but there is no train line and no hope of getting one under the Ireland 2040 plan. What kind of life do the thousands of people who have to commute from the town at 5.30 a.m. each day have? Do the metrics currently used give a proper reflection of the life they lead and indicate that all is happy and well based on a crude analysis of income? They do not.

Yesterday the Oireachtas Library and Research Service afforded Members the opportunity to look at CSO statistics superimposed on constituency maps. It drilled down townland by townland and street by street to find out how many people were employed and unemployed in each area and to reveal the figures for youth unemployment. That is the cold statistical analysis, but Members know the stories behind each of these areas and about the other important aspects such as the debt with which people have been saddled, the lack of infrastructure in certain areas and the impact on areas surrounding these townlands.

There would be huge merit in examining other aspects, as outlined in the Bill. Fianna Fáil supports the principles behind the Bill, although it will need further detailed scrutiny to ascertain its full impact. The CSO is an independent agency and we would not compel it to use metrics which it believes may be inaccurate owing to a lack of data. Notwithstanding this, the Bill and this debate are hugely important and have significant merit because Members must always have the interests of those whom they represent at the centre of their minds when discussing what is important.

See this speech in context