Pat O'Neill (Fine Gael)

I welcome the Government Chief Whip and Minister of State at the Department of the Taoiseach to the Seanad today and thank him for coming to speak to us on the matter of the importance of statistics in developing public policy and planning for the future. Statistics are used in every part of life. Most people associate statistics with watching a match on television and what comes up at the end of the match, for example, how long a team was in possession, how many wides they hit, how many points were scored and red cards. The Minister of State is used to seeing such statistics when Kilkenny play Wexford in hurling.