Venue: Department of the Taoiseach, Room 308
Date: Thursday December 8, 2016 at 10.00am
Item 1: Minutes of September 8, 2016 (NSB 2016-5-2)
Item 2: NSB recommended actions governance template (NSB 2016-5-3)
Item 3: Director General’s progress report (NSB 2016-5-4)
Item 4: Update on CSO resources (NSB 2016-5-5)
Item 5: Key NSB achievements 2014 – 2016 and issues for the future (NSB 2016-5-6)
Item 6: Any other business
National Statistics Board
Minutes
Venue: Department of the Taoiseach
Date: Thursday 8 December, 2016
The following members attended:
Dr. Patricia O’Hara (Chairperson), Mr. John McCarthy, Mr. John Shaw, Dr. Helen Johnston, Mr. Gerard O’Neill, Mr. Tom Geraghty and Mr. Pádraig Dalton.
Ms. Jennifer Banim, Mr. Paul Morrin (CSO Senior Management)
Ms. Claire Hanley acted as Secretary.
Apologies: Ms. Rowena Dwyer
Note:
Since the previous meeting on September 8 2016, Mr. John Shaw, Assistant Secretary Department of the Taoiseach has been appointed to the Board and he was welcomed by the Chairperson. Since this was the final meeting of the current Board, John Shaw briefed members on the appointment process of a new NSB in line with new procedures for appointments to state bodies.
Item 1: Minutes of September 8 2016 (NSB 2016-5-2)
The minutes of the previous meeting were agreed with one amendment.
Item 2: NSB recommended actions governance template (NSB 2016-5-3)
The Board discussed developments in relation to the NSB Strategy, specifically in relation to the following:
Item 3: Director General’s progress report (NSB 2016-5-4)
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.
National Accounts and Balance of Payments 2015 Results
The Economic Statistics Review Group convened by the CSO to examine how to better meet user needs for insight into Irish domestic economic activity is on target to meet the end 2016 deadline to report to the Director General. A CSO seminar to launch the work of the Group and to allow for discussion on wider globalisation measurement issues is planned for early 2017.
The Board discussed the strong engagement by the group, the possible impact of the recommendations on CSO resources and the merits of maintaining the group into the future. The Board also discussed changes in CSO communication and dissemination practices.
System of Health Accounts Seminar
A CSO seminar on Ireland’s health expenditure under the System of Health Accounts framework was held on October 10th. The feedback at the seminar on user requirements for further analyses and supporting data was very helpful and the important discussion at the seminar on the boundary between health and social expenditure reinforced the need for the work started by the CSO to provide an overall view of expenditure on care.
The Board thanked those involved in organising the seminar and discussed the merits of widening the results in future to include social statistics.
Crime Statistics
The second quality report on recorded Crime statistics was published on the September 28, 2016. The CSO is continuing to work with An Garda Síochána to improve the reliability of the data source and will continue this analysis at regular intervals to monitor data quality.
Household Survey Development Project
Throughout 2016, the new Labour Force Survey (LFS) has been gradually introduced in the field and in the call-centre, and has run in parallel to the QNHS. It had been planned to switchover to the LFS and discontinue the QNHS in Q1 2017. However, it has been decided to extend the ‘LFS parallel run’ for two further quarters in 2017 to fully assess the new labour market estimates. Therefore the Quarterly National Household Survey will remain the source of official labour market statistics for quarter 1 and quarter 2 2017, and the current intention is to discontinue the QNHS after quarter 2 2017 and switch over to the Labour Force Survey from Q3 2017.
The Board supported the decision by CSO to extend the parallel run. The Board also discussed the publication of back data and the modules which will be published alongside the annual main theme which is driven primarily by Eurostat requirements.
Structure of Earnings Statistics
The Structure of Earnings Statistics 2011-2014 (new methodology) which was to be published in December 2016 will not be published as planned, as further refinement on the new methodology is needed. It is difficult for the CSO to estimate the amount of additional work that will be required prior to publication but this work has been prioritised and additional resources allocated with a view to publication at the earliest opportunity.
The Board discussed the importance of these statistics and welcomed the additional resources that had been assigned to complete the project. The Board supported the decision by the CSO to postpone publication adding that there could be no trade-off on timeliness versus quality.
Data Protection
Following the dialogue earlier this year with the Office of the Data Protection Commissioner (ODPC), the CSO published its policy document on Official Statistics and Data Protection at the end of September. Implementation of the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) which comes into force in May 2018 is being discussed by the Inter-Departmental Committee on Data-related Issues. A draft Heads of Bill on various implementation points is being prepared by the Department of Justice. This will include derogations for official statistics (from rights of data subject access to access their own data, to rectify data, to restrict processing, or to object to processing) under Article 89(2) of the GDPR.
The Board welcomed the publication of the policy document on Official Statistics and Data Protection and discussed the possible impact of the GDPR on implementation of the NSB Strategy.
Information and Technology
The CSOs Chief Information Officer was asked to chair the inter-Departmental group that is developing the Data as an Enabler pillar of the Public Sector ICT Strategy. This pillar is now closely aligned with NSB/CSO strategy including both the National Data Infrastructure (NDI) and Irish Statistical System (ISS) pathfinder projects as key deliverables.
The CSO is working closely with D/PER, OGCIO and other stakeholders on an agreed definition of the NDI.
The Board discussed the benefits of engaging with Big Data specialists such as Amazon and Google in relation to supporting the production of statistics, e.g. Google maps now includes the Eircode. The Board welcomed CSO’s involvement with the Analytics Institute and noted the Chair’s involvement as a panel member at the recent launch.
Statistical System Coordination
The Board discussed the resourcing of the new directorate and the approach to prioritising pathfinders projects which can be solved using data.
Linkages to the Civil Service Renewal Plan developed
In October the CSO submitted formal proposals as to how the CSO could support some of the broader Civil Service Renewal Plan actions and specifically on Action 22 (Strengthening policy-making) and Action 24 (Improving how data is collected, managed and shared). In relation to Action 24 the CSO’s proposal was accepted and the Director General of the CSO is now one of five Secretaries General leading this particular action.
The Board welcomed these developments which will help in progressing the NSB strategy.
Corporate Matters
The Board noted the following:
Item 4: Update on CSO resources (NSB 2016-5-5)
Following the recent Statistician competition, eleven new Statisticians started in November, three of which have been allocated to Cork. The CSO are currently running another round of interviews and hope to complete these by December 2016. The Senior Statistician competition, conducted by PAS, has been completed and appointments are imminent.
The Board noted the reduction in overall staff numbers which is mainly due to the end of contract of a number of temporary officers.
Item 5: Key NSB achievements 2014-2016 and issues for the future (NSB 2016-5-6)
Patricia O’Hara presented the key events underpinning the work of the Board over its term and set out the issues for the future:
Comments submitted by Rowena Dwyer, who was unable to attend the meeting, were noted in relation to this item. In particular her support for the seminar and similar events in the future to help promote and drive the benefits of the NDI in informing public policy decision making.
As this was the final meeting of the current Board, the Chairperson thanked the members for their time and commitment and wished them well.