Rónán Mullen (Independent)

Senator Fitzgerald said she did not believe we would quote any study that shows what works best for children. There might have been an unconscious glibness about what I had to say about surveys and statistics. While surveys clearly help to determine what assessment people have reached on an issue, they do not prove whether they are right or wrong in that assessment of a situation at a given time. Statistics, if they are impartial and carefully compiled, are a tremendous aid but they are not the last word. They are not merely theoretical but explain the practical position on the ground, an issue Senator Fitzgerald and others correctly identified as important.

I was correct to respond to Senator Bacik's statistics by making one or two relevant points about statistics.