Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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7. To ask the Taoiseach the role of the economic policy unit in his Department. [17832/17]

Gerry Adams (Louth, Sinn Fein)
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8. To ask the Taoiseach the role of the economic policy section in his Department. [20718/17]

Enda Kenny (Mayo, Fine Gael)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 7 and 8 together.

The economic division of my Department supports the Taoiseach and the Government in developing and implementing economic policy aimed at sustainable economic growth and development.

It has a particular focus on jobs, competitiveness, trade and investment, tourism and the economic impacts of Brexit, as well as other international developments. It is also responsible for housing matters and for economic infrastructure.

It supports the work of four Cabinet committees and related senior officials groups, seeking to maximise the effectiveness of their work. These are the Cabinet committees on economy, trade and jobs; housing; infrastructure, the environment and climate action; and regional and rural affairs.

It supports implementation of the Government’s Action Plans for Jobs, Housing and Homelessness, and Rural Development, and co-ordinates Ireland’s participation in the European semester process. Preparation of the national reform programme and the national risk assessment are also undertaken.

The division acts as my Department's liaison point with the Central Statistics Office, CSO, on certain administrative functions, and provides support, as required, to the Minister of State, Deputy Regina Doherty, who has been delegated responsibility for the CSO.

The division plays a role in supporting the Government in its approach to long-term challenges as set out in the programme for Government and in the delivery of key infrastructure including housing, broadband, transport, energy and water. The division works with relevant Departments to oversee Ireland's transition to a low-carbon economy.

Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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The CSO is under the Department of the Taoiseach and the economic policy unit has traditionally been responsible for overseeing its work. The Taoiseach will have noticed two members of his Government have recently been caught out promoting misleading and potentially fake statistics. The Minister for Social Protection recently launched a national media campaign on a claim concerning welfare fraud which overstated savings by over 1,000%. The Minister for Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government has been promoting his record on the basis of a claim on new builds which inflates the true figure by 100%.

Clearly those Ministers are actively trying to promote their images and enhance their profiles. It is also fair to say, however, this type of behaviour is also seen elsewhere in government. In the hours before the budget was announced, €300 million suddenly appeared in spite of the insistence of Ministers that they had been fully transparent with the figures. Taken all together, one can only conclude that Ministers are deliberately using misleading and untrue statistics or they are failing to check their figures before issuing their various press releases.

Has the Taoiseach taken any action to stop this growing habit of making misleading false claims about official statistics?

Gerry Adams (Louth, Sinn Fein)
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Does, or will, the economic policy section play any role in influencing the Government’s policy on pensions? There are reports in the media that public servants will take a huge hit from pension reforms which will be part of the pay negotiations this summer. The Taoiseach knows the majority of public sector pensioners receive less than €19,721 a year. In other words, their pensions are less than the national minimum wage. The problem lies at the top scale where there are 500 public sector workers receiving collectively €5 million. Any time Sinn Féin calls for a curb on this, the Government is the first to rubbish what we are saying.

Given that we are going into budget 2018, having already spent €500 million of the fiscal space, and with this particular chicken coming home to roost, will the Government confirm whether it is planning to change the way public sector pensions are calculated? Will the Taoiseach give a commitment to protect the pensions of low to middle-income workers and curb the excess of the pensions of high earners? Will the Government remove all FEMPI, financial emergency measures in the public interest, cuts to low and middle-income pensioners? When does the Taoiseach expect the first report of the public service pay commission to be published?

Enda Kenny (Mayo, Fine Gael)
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In respect of the comment made by Deputy Micheál Martin about the CSO, the Department of Social Protection estimated savings from control and fraud, not just fraud. It was based on a model developed with the CSO and also used in Australia, as well as other OECD countries. The Department of Social Protection stands over this.

With regard to the CSO figures on house builds-----

Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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It stated fraud.

Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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Come off it, Minister. You were caught out.

Seán Ó Fearghaíl (Kildare South, Ceann Comhairle)
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Deputies, please we are running out of time.

Enda Kenny (Mayo, Fine Gael)
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Even in the time of a former Government-----

Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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The Minister said €500 million was saved on fraud. That was far ahead of any of the real figures. Then there were 8,000 new houses over five years.

Enda Kenny (Mayo, Fine Gael)
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-----of which Deputy Micheál Martin was a member, house builds were always determined on ESB house connections.

Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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It was wrong, however. What is policy based on?

Enda Kenny (Mayo, Fine Gael)
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There is a different model with the CSO. The economic unit of the Department deals with certain administrative functions and supports the Minister of State, Deputy Regina Doherty.

It deals with regular parliamentary questions. The CSO is an independent national institute dealing with statistics. The Statistics Act 1993 underpins that. The Act provides the director general will have the sole responsibility for and be independent in the exercise of the functions of deciding the statistical methodology and professional statistical standards used by the office; the content of statistical releases and publications issued by the office; and the timing and methods of dissemination of statistics compiled by the office. The Minister of State, Deputy Regina Doherty and I have no role or function in that.

In that regard, it pointed out from its model that the issue, in so far as house builds are concerned, was that for years Governments have used electricity connections to determine the number.

The Minister will take note of the Central Statistics Office, CSO, figures. The action plan for housing, with the five designated pillars, has an unprecedented extent both of incentive, innovative opportunity and money available to it. We are trying to catch up from a position where the construction sector collapsed completely from building 90,000 houses per year to 9,000 houses per year.