Rose Conway Walsh (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

No. With the greatest respect, I do not want an answer but, rather, a bed for the patient. I acknowledge the help that I have received from the Leader in trying to secure a bed. I appreciate what the Cathaoirleach said about a Commencement debate but I felt it was important that I raised this matter yesterday. Not only to raise it on behalf of Mary but also on behalf of all of the other Marys and Johns who await vital treatment. I will never apologise for doing so.

I want to return to an issue I raised last week in regard to the Government's economic forecast. The CSO, through the Department of the Taoiseach, is responsible for the collation and dissemination of economic data for the State. This is meant to instil confidence in the economy and provide accurate data for Ireland's potential investors and traders. The recent skewed figures for GDP growth were not just an embarrassment for Ireland, as we see now, but a figure has been placed on how much it will cost us, namely, and additional €280 million. That sum would provide a lot of hospital beds in the west. Even the director general of the CSO has said, at the MacGill Summer School, that GDP and GNP, although required internationally, no longer provide a sufficient understanding of the domestic economy or growth. While they may be used to measure income to an extent, they certainly do not measure equality.

That to which I refer has not happened just with these figures. I want to refer to the CSO figures on farming. We were told that 30,000 jobs were created in farming in one quarter in 2013. I was so amazed by the statistic that I rang the office of the CSO in Cork. I told the person who answered my call that 100 new jobs were not being created on a daily basis in farming but I was informed that the statistic was true, according to the figures. I replied that the person must be overrun with tractors in Cork because farming jobs were not being created in Mayo. Obviously, the figures have been altered. The CSO is looking for leadership for a means to provide more accurate economic data. In the wake of these remarks, from a senior civil servant working in the Taoiseach's Department, I ask that somebody from the latter be invited to come in here to address my concerns about the validity of economic data released by the Government.