asked the Minister for Transport and Power if he is aware that serious discrepancies have been found in the statistical returns of tourism traffic published by Bord Fáilte when compared with similar statistics produced by the Central Statistics Office; and, if so, whether he proposes to take any action on the matter.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Tourism Traffic Statistics.
16.
Mr. O'Donnell
The official annual estimates for visits and revenue from tourist traffic are prepared by the Central Statistics Office. The statistics for any particular year are not generally available until about midway through the following year. Bord Fáilte prepares its own annual estimates of numbers and expenditure by visitors and these are used until such time as the official figures become available.
While there are differences from time to time between the official and Bord Fáilte estimates, I am not aware of any discrepancies between the two sets of figures which need be a source of concern. All countries experience obstacles and difficulties in interpreting tourism data. Nevertheless, one of the conclusions of a recently published study was that these problems are less severe in the case of Irish tourist statistics than in the case of most other countries.
Mr. O'Donnell
Would the Minister not agree that it looks very bad in the eyes of the public, and is very damaging to the credibility of Bord Fáilte, to have their official tourist traffic figures publicly questioned by a statistician as happened recently? Grave doubt has been thrown on the validity of the published figures. In view of this, would the Minister explore the possibility of having a more credible or acceptable method of compiling these statistics devised?
To put the matter into perspective, this is an international problem. It is a matter of concern in every country, not just in Ireland. Mr. John O'Hagan, a very well-known statistician, read a paper recently—I think this is what the Deputy was referring to—to the Statistical and Social Inquiry Society of Ireland in which he highlighted what needs to be done here. At the moment, in the light of his paper, we are examining how we can harmonise more closely the Central Statistics Office figures and the Bord Fáilte figures. I want to emphasise what I said in my initial reply. On our examination of this sort of problem in every country we found that there is less of a difference as regards Ireland than there is in most other countries in the world. It certainly needs examination. There is no question about that.
Question No. 17.
Mr. O'Donnell
I asked only one supplementary.
We have 227 questions on the Order Paper.
Mr. O'Donnell
Could I ask the Minister whether the method adopted by Bord Fáilte in compiling their statistics is similar to that used by the OECD in compiling tourism statistics?
At that end of it, yes. The Central Statistics Office examination is a closer and more detailed one. There is a difficulty in any sort of open country in which there is freedom of travel in defining who is a tourist and who is not a tourist. This is really the basis of the problem. It is being examined. It is a very real problem. There is no question about that.