Venue: Board Room, CSO, Cork
Date: Wednesday December 6, 2017 at 9.00am
Item 1: Minutes of NSB meeting October 4, 2017 (NSB 2017-3-2)
Item 2: NSB Strategy – Review of progress on recommended actions (NSB 2017-3-3)
Item 3: Director General’s progress report (NSB 2017-3-4)
Item 4: Update on CSO resources (NSB 2017-3-5)
Item 5: Well-being indicators report (NSB 2017-3-6)
Item 6: CSO branding review exercise
Item 7: Any other business
Venue: CSO, Cork, T12 X00E
Date: Wednesday 6 December 2017
The following members attended:
Mr. Gerard O’Neill (Acting Chairperson), Mr. John McCarthy, Mr. John Shaw, Dr. Eimear Cotter, Mr. John Martin, Mr. Gerard Brady and Mr. Pádraig Dalton.
Mr. Paul Morrin, Ms. Maria Hurley, Mr. Joe Treacy and Mr. Richard McMahon (CSO Senior Management)
Ms. Claire Hanley (Secretary)
Apologies: Dr. Patricia O’Hara (Chairperson)
Item 1: Minutes of October 4 2017 (NSB 2017-3-2)
The minutes of the previous meeting were agreed.
Item 2: NSB Strategy – Review of progress on recommended actions (NSB 2017-3-3)
The Board discussed progress on recommended actions from the NSB Strategy, specifically in relation to the following:
Item 3: Director General’s progress report (NSB 2017-3-4)
The Director General briefed the Board on a number of recent developments within CSO and at European level. Specific issues were selected for further discussion.
Government Accounts
The Board were updated on the ongoing review by the CSO Government Accounts Division of the statistical classification of the Irish universities and of Approved Housing Bodies (AHBs) for the March 2018 EDP results. The CSO will make an initial determination of appropriate sector classification for the universities and the AHBs, with Eurostat making the final determinations based on the documentation provided by the CSO and Eurostat’s classification decisions for similar entities in other Member States.
Crime Statistics
The Board were updated on the ongoing review initiated by CSO on foot of an An Garda Síochána (AGS) inquiry into homicide statistics for the period 2012-2015. There is no update since the last meeting of the NSB on the timeline for the completion of the review.
The Board discussed the CSOs thoughts on how they might recommence publication of these statistics in Q1 2018.
Gender Based Violence
The Board were apprised of developments at European level to conduct a survey on Gender Based Violence (GBV) including domestic and sexual violence. The CSO is fully supportive of producing statistics on GBV but has serious concerns with regard to the methodology to be employed when gathering data on gender violence, sexual abuse and instances of domestic violence.
The Board discussed the challenges faced by the CSO in collecting data relating to GBV and suggested areas to be examined which face similar issues when gathering data.
Labour Market
The Board discussed the Household Survey Development (HSD) project which is now entering its final phase, with the publication of the Q3 2017 Labour Market results from the new Labour Force Survey (LFS) scheduled for January 2018. The final publication from the Quarterly National Household Survey (QNHS) was released on 22 September 2017.
The Board were updated on the process of engaging with key users on the implications of the HSD project on Labour Market results and discussed the importance of these statistics and the need for further development in areas such as the measurement of self-employment and multiple job-holding.
Data Breach
The Board were apprised of the recent events surrounding the inadvertent issuing by CSO of personal P45 information relating to 3,000 former employees (Census Enumerators) to four individuals - three of the recipients were former employees who had sought access to their P45 records; the fourth was the accountant of one of these former staff members.
The CSO immediately notified the Office of the Data Protection Commissioner (ODPC) of the breach and the individuals affected have been informed by letter. A thorough investigation of the incident is underway at CSO and additional control measures have been urgently implemented to safeguard employee data and to reinforce data governance. Consideration of additional steps will be undertaken once the final report of the investigation into the incident is completed.
Item 4: Update on CSO resources (NSB 2017-3-5)
The Board were updated on the current situation with regard to the 2018 budget allocation which represents a significant shortfall over the original bid submitted to the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform (DPER).
The Office has outlined in significant detail to DPER the likely impact and associated corporate risks of the shortfall, in particular: delivery of the Economic Statistics Review Group recommendations; technology investment; and key business information security initiatives.
A detailed examination is currently underway of the potential allocations possible within the declared budget as part of the Business Planning process.
The Board noted the following in relation to CSO staffing resources:
Item 5: Well-being indicators report (NSB 2017-3-6)
Damien Lenihan from CSOs ICW[2] division presented the background and approach to the Well-Being indicators which are due to be published in January 2018.
The Board welcomed this publication and discussed the various measures of well-being and the subjectivity of assessing how people are feeling.
Item 6: CSO branding review exercise
The Board were presented with the results of the recent CSO re-branding exercise and discussed the newly designed CSO logo. Overall the response was positive.
The Board congratulated all those involved in the Graduate Program at CSO which won the Civil Service Excellence and Innovation Award under the category of People, Skills, and Organisational Development.
The next meeting of the Board will take place on February 7, 2018 at the Department of the Taoiseach, Government Buildings, D02 R583. Subsequent 2018 meeting dates of April 11 and June 6 were agreed.