Seanad debates

Thursday, 13 October 2011

Public Policy and Planning: Statements

 

1:00 pm

Photo of Paul BradfordPaul Bradford (Fine Gael)

I thank Senator O'Neill for giving me the opportunity to say a few words. I welcome the Minister of State and wish him well in his job. I hope he is not too busy as Government Chief Whip as that would be a bad political sign for us, but I hope he is busy in these less politically dramatic parts of his portfolio.

It is an interesting discussion on the CSO and statistics in general. Obviously, I agree with virtually everything said but there are a few brief points I want to present.

While the Minister of State and his colleagues in the CSO, with their base of statistics, can be of considerable help to his Government colleagues, it will be up to each of them across their Departments to lead the policy. Statistics are necessary and they are fine, but we cannot be led entirely from a statistical base. Whether it is housing, education or transport planning, a certain degree of political decision making must occur and we should then use the statistics to assist the implementation of those decisions.

In the fiasco of the housing market which we have endured over the past decade, one can argue that if the people had observed the statistics, we would not have ended up with the current housing crisis, but it is equally fair to say that neither a Minister with responsibility for housing nor the Department of the Environment, Community and Local Government ever took the political decision to build up the small villages, preserve the rural towns, and allow or not allow rural planning. These types of political decisions need to be made by the various Ministers and we can use the statistical base to push them through. As the Minister of State will be aware, we are commencing an important national debate on the future of the Common Agricultural Policy. We can either decide to consider the issues arising purely from a statistical basis and decide there will always be X number of big farmers and Y number of small farmers or take the political decision that we want to maintain rural Ireland and the maximum number of farming families. A combination of political decisions and statistics must be applied to turn the economy around.

The Minister of State's contribution indicates that joined up thinking is now being practised. I commend all involved in this, whether the head of the CSO or the person who recorded the census. All are playing a key role in giving us a base of information. It is up to us to use this information politically by making decisions across Departments for the good of society.

Comments

No comments

Log in or join to post a public comment.