Susan O'Keeffe (Labour)

I apologise. I did not realise that. The visual impact of a map helps us to understand that when we have such information it is our duty to convert it into policy. There were good statistical outcomes from surgery for cancer patients in Sligo General Hospital, yet as we all know, and I will not revisit the argument, the policy ended up with there not being cancer services available in that area.

However, if we look specifically at the Western Development Commission and consider some of the statistics it has gathered, the rural population of the region in the north west is 68% compared with a State average of 39%. On that basis, we can safely say it is a rural community. If one then notes that in all counties that come under the remit of the Western Development Commission one-third of the population is under the age of 24; people routinely understand that a rural population means an aging community, but that is not the case. The average statistic of one-third of the population in those counties being under the age of 24 is the same average as for rest of Ireland. That means the region is rural but it also has a young community. With only those two items of information, one could transform the way in which we appreciate that part of the country. It could be said that one-third of the population under the age of 24 in the north west are routinely ignored by policy.

If we consider the share of tourism for the north west or the western region, it is roughly around 18% of the tourism business for the country, with Galway accounting for 9% of that. These figures cover tourism and the rural community of the region, both elements that present enormous potential as drivers of the economy. We need policy to encourage, support and drive such development. The statistics are there to support it but where is the policy that needs to go with it?

Practical steps were taken by the IT in Sligo to build a centre of excellence for sustainable development in which areas such as renewable fuels, wastewater treatment and bog rehabilitation - buzz words for a green future and job creation that we talk about a good deal - were examined. Yet I am not aware of there being a supporting economic policy along with the statistics that Sligo IT can produce about what it can provide by way of qualified people. We need to use the statistics we have to build policy.

There is one area in which we could take the advice of the Western Development Commission. Its recent research into the creative sector, already employing 11,000 people, took one single factor into account. It noted that two thirds of the businesses already based in the region did not export any of their goods and services. It has done further research and stated that if there was proper intervention driven by policy, it could generate an additional 17,000 jobs in that western region. That is a single concentrated item of statistical analysis that could provide jobs in an area where they are needed.

Now the Western Development Commission has got funding from INTERREG from Europe along with NUI Galway to develop an export platform to drive exports in this area and that is a good thing. It achieved that by providing the statistical evidence required for that application and it is then up to the Government to support that work and to specifically encourage creation of those jobs.

I want to believe that today, having a Minister in the House and discussing the value of statistics, marks a departure in that the Government accepts that statistics can and do, and must, drive public policy. They can and do mean that we can have more appropriate and more efficient spending of the funds that are not exactly in great amounts, that we can target them effectively with better statistical information, and that statistics can and do improve our lives, but that any investment in statistical gathering, analysis or interpretation must be accompanied by the appropriate political will.

I welcome the Minister of State. I trust the work the CSO does will continue and that over the lifetime of this Government we will make a conscious effort to use those statistics much more effectively to drive policy specifically where it is needed.