The extent to which those who fashion social policy - of whatever party and none - do so on the basis of hunch and instinct rather than objective fact is little appreciated. The objective research is simply not there. Priorities are defined and assumptions made about the social consequences of everything from class sizes to spatial planning, from family breakdown to obesity, on the basis of anecdote or snapshot surveys that tell little about long-term trends in a fast-changing society.
That is why the launch yesterday by the ESRI and Trinity College Dublin of the first major longitudinal survey of children's lives is of major significance. Minister for Children Brian Lenihan, announcing Government funding of €24 million for its first seven years, described it with reason as "one of the most important pieces of research ever undertaken into Irish children".
Growing up in Ireland will chart in detail the lives of 8,000 nine-year-olds and 10,000 nine-month-olds chosen at random. The hope of researchers is that it will sufficiently have proved its worth that the Government will renew funding after the first phase, to allow continued tracking of the 18,000, and then, hopefully, also new cohorts to join their ranks. Questions to children and their families and teachers will range widely over all aspects of their lives and, importantly, also attempt to chronicle children's own changing views and aspirations.
The survey is inspired by work done elsewhere, notably the Growing up in Australia study and that being done by the London Centre for Longitudinal Studies (CLS) whose work in the North should provide fascinating comparative data.
Among the former's findings, for example, are figures tending to allay concerns that today's children are having difficulty coping with new family contexts, whether it be mothers returning to work, greater utilisation of childcare, or higher levels of hardship, stress and isolation experienced by young families.
Among many dimensions explored by the CLS are the important connections between obesity, class and educational attainment (one striking finding is a relationship between obesity and poor job and relationship prospects for women, but not for men).
The Irish survey's success will, however, depend crucially on the generosity with which participants and their families engage, and re-engage later, with researchers. Assured of complete confidentiality, their's is a chance to contribute personally in a small but significant way to a resource of huge importance, not only to today's planners and social scientists, but to future generations' understanding of our times. They should find the time.