asked the Taoiseach if he will state in respect of each of the years 1947-1952 inclusive (1) the actual amount, and (2) the percentage change since 1947 of (a) monetary circulation notes and coin December average; (b) bank deposits at end of year; (c) bank debits; (d) bank advances at end of year; (e) net sterling assets of Associated Banks at end of year; (f) Exchequer Issues including capital advances for year beginning 1st April; (g) imports; (h) exports and re-exports; (i) gross agricultural output volume index number; (j) agricultural output consumed at home; (k) agricultural output exported; (l) agricultural price index;(m) transportable goods production volume index number; (n) cost of living index in August; (o) industrial wage rates index number in September; (p) agricultural wage rates index number in July.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Financial, Industrial and Agricultural Statistics.
The basic information required by the Deputy has been published in various documents, copies of which are available to him in the Oireachtas Library. The statistics required may be obtained from the Quarterly Statistical Bulletinor the annual reports of the Central Bank, the Finance Accounts, the IrishStatistical Survey, 1951-52, and theIrish Trade Journal and Statistical Bulletin.
I understood that this was a regular sheet anchor of the Department of Finance, to whom I addressed this question in the first instance. I understood that the information which I asked for was ready to be thrown out at any time it was sought.
The information is already available to the Deputy in the various forms which I have quoted in my reply.
Will the Parliamentary Secretary say if the material has not already been assembled in somewhat the form I have suggested? Can he, therefore, give the House any reason why—the information having been assembled in that way—it should not be made available when asked for?
The material is made available to Deputies in the usual form and in accordance with the practice which has operated in previous years.
Surely it is normal for the Taoiseach, who is the head of the Statistics Office, to summarise the information that may be available in a great many publications, when he is asked so to do in a question and when the information is available to the officers of his Department?
Will the Minister for Finance, to whom the question wasoriginally addressed, say whether this is not a standard assembly of infromation bearing on certain aspects of the financial position in this country and, further, whether the information is not actually available in his office and kept up-to-date? What, therefore, is the objection to supplying the information which was requested by me in my question?
The objection, from the point of view of the Department of Finance, is that it incurs an unnecessary expense. All the documents in question have already been sent to the Deputy or are at his disposal in the Library.
Will the Minister not agree that time and expense are incurred in the assembly of information from the statistical information which is published in various forms? If that expense has already been incurred by the Department of Finance in assembling this information, what isthe objection to making it available generally?
I do not know how the information could be supplied in any better form than in the documents which have been published, copies of which are sent to every Deputy.