Catherine Murphy (Kildare North, Social Democrats)
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539. To ask the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport the consideration which is given by his Department to service provision and policy response further to the publication of the census of population; the sections of his Department that are affected and-or involved; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [31409/17]

Shane Ross (Dublin Rathdown, Independent)
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Ensuring that we have the appropriate level of investment into our transport network to meet the demands placed on it by the population is core to the business of my Department.  In 2015 we published the Strategic Investment Framework for Land Transport, which set out the priorities and principles for future investment in that area, and just last week I announced the publication of Transport Trends 2017, which highlights the continued growth of transport activity within the State.

An important piece of planning future service provision is accurate statistics about the population, and in that regard Census 2016 provides an invaluable source of data at a point in time.  The publication in May of statistics relating to the geographical distribution of the population will assist the Department in prioritising effective interventions while the forthcoming publication of the age profile of the population and statistics on commuting should provide additional rich sources of data for my Department to use.

The impact of changing demographics is felt right across Transport, Tourism and Sport, affecting where people choose to live, how they prefer to travel, which sports and activities they participate in, and many other decisions.  As such, I expect that officials in every section of my Department will be involved in using the results of Census 2016 to inform future service provision and policy.