Katherine Zappone (Independent) | Oireachtas source

The Central Statistics Office will issue the national accounts for the first quarter of 2014 in the coming weeks and we hope and expect to see a rise in the estimated GDP levels. This will be very positive news for the Government but I hope also for the thousands of Irish families who have been struggling to make ends meet and who face daily hardship, poverty and even homelessness due to successive austerity budgets which have hit the poorest hardest. As the Governor of the Central Bank, Professor Patrick Honohan, said last Friday in his response to Thomas Piketty's key note address at the Tasc conference, those at the bottom have been pushed into very negative positions.

However, what I want to do today is to alert this House to the fact that some of the expected increase in GDP will be due to changes in the rules in how GDP is measured. The guesstimates reported by the media put this increase at more than 1%. The new rules set out by ESA 2010 aim to unify the procedures of calculating GDP in different EU member states as this is used in the calculation of members states' contribution to the EU budget. The major difference to the previous regulations used include recognition of research and development and illegal activities, such as prostitution, in the measurement of GDP.

I understand we need to measure the economy as accurately as possible but when we are calculating a measurement which will have a profound impact on budgetary matters and policy decisions, my concern is that including activities which we may wish to remove from our economy - it was one of the recommendations of the Joint Committee on Justice, Defence and Equality approximately a year ago - into a measurement of economic output is counterproductive. By including underground industries, such as the illegal drug trade and prostitution, are we in any way condoning or even normalising these sectors of our society?

How will prostitution earnings or productivity be measured? The Joint Oireachtas Committee on Justice, Defence and Equality produced a report reviewing legislation on prostitution and we noted that research evidence estimates the indoor prostitution industry to be worth at least €180 million. How will the CSO measure it? The report also found that, on average, 1,000 people are offered for sex daily in Ireland, some 97% of them are migrant women and some are children, and between 2009 and 2011 up to 34 minors were trafficked into the State for sexual exploitation.

Will the Leader contact the Minister for Finance to request he investigate the issues I have raised and to come back to the House to present how the prostitution industry will be measured for GDP in Ireland and state whether he thinks this is acceptable?