I move:
That a sum not exceeding £5,073,000 be granted to defray the charge which will come in course of payment during the year ending on the 31st day of December, 1980, for the salaries and expenses of the Central Statistics Office.
Estimates, 1980. - Vote 4: Central Statistics Office.
I do not think I have ever spoken on this subject before but I should like to put on record that everybody on my side of the House has, I think, a very high regard for the integrity and absolute regularity of the statistical operation. I recall that, even when we were in Government, when one might have expected that some kind of favour or edge might be shown, that never was the case and there was never any question of getting figures early or getting them in any form other than that in which they were generally available. That is how it should be and I should like to praise the Central Statistics Office for maintaining those standards.
On the other hand, I suppose it can only do what it has the resources to do and it must do what it is told to do in the sense of what it is told to collect. Can the Minister tell the House why the unemployment figures, which in our time were published weekly, are now published monthly? I raised this with another office-holder—there are so many of them that I cannot keep track of them; they are like mice at a crossroads —yesterday or the day before and I was told that the change was the result of a recommendation of a committee. What kind of committee? I am perfectly certain that there were no representatives of the Opposition on it. It may have been the recommendation of an interdepartmental committee or a committee of administrators but I would be very surprised if it were a committee of people who actually need the services which the statistics office afford. I may be wrong and if so I will say that I am sorry. I should like the Minister to give us the reason for the change.
(Cavan-Monaghan): Perhaps I might more appropriately have put this question at the very beginning of the discussion on these Estimates but could the Minister for Finance tell us the amount of money involved in all the Estimates we are dealing with this afternoon? It is only a matter of totting them up.
I could not tell the Deputy just now. If I had got notice——
(Cavan-Monaghan): I am sure the Minister's civil servants will be able to work it out.
About £200,000,000.
I shall be putting about half that sum through in five or six minutes' time.
(Cavan-Monaghan): I ask the Minister to get me that information before we conclude.
Those we are dealing with now are approximately £129 million.
(Cavan-Monaghan): Is that all the Estimates?
No, those we are dealing with now. I can only answer in relation to those.
In relation to the point mentioned by Deputy Kelly, I am told that that was the recommendation of an interdepartmental committee who sought advice on a wide basis and it was as a consequence of their recommendation that it was decided to publish——
Who set that up? I presume it was not self-constituted.
I do not think it was self-constituted. We can check it and find out for the Deputy.
Would I be far wrong if I said it was your crowd?
We do not call anybody in this House "crowd".
Well, my crowd. I believe they would not mind being referred to in that affectionate way.
Well, your crowd, my crowd and his crowd. We better move on from that.
My Government endured the publication of unemployment statistics every Friday afternoon and our noses were duly rubbed in them the following Tuesday when the Dáil met. The Government have succeeeded in avoiding that and have substituted for the 52 annual embarrasments a matter of 12, less the recess periods. That is a very considerable political gain. Let the Minister not tell me there was no political motive behind it.
There is a certain sense of political embarrasment because the figures are so much better than they were when Deputy Kelly's Government were in power.
(Interruptions.)
The Chair is still around.
I am still waiting for a reply to my question. Surely the committee was not set up by itself?
The Central Statistics Office, in consultation with the Department of Finance, set up the committee. The Government would in no way be embarrased by having weekly figures published which would clearly demonstrate the magnificent achievement by comparison with the figures when Deputy Kelly's Government were in power.
(Interruptions.)
Vote put and agreed to.