NATIONAL STATISTICS BOARD

AGENDA 

Thursday December 7, 2023

9.15am to 15.30pm

CSO, Skehard Road, Cork T12 X00E

National Statistics Board

Minutes

The meeting took place in the CSO Office in Cork and was a hybrid meeting.

Date: Thursday 7th December 2023

Members present: Ms. Anne Vaughan (Chairperson), Ms. Eithne Fitzgerald, Dr. Martina Lawless,
Dr. Clíona Saidléar, Mr. John Shaw, Mr. Jim Scheer*, Ms. Emma Cunningham*, and Mr. Pádraig Dalton
Non-members in attendance from CSO: Brian Cahill (Secretary), Frankie Kay, Richard McMahon and Paul Morrin.
* attended remotely

Item 1: Minutes of NSB meeting September 14, 2023 (NSB 2023-5-2)

The minutes of the previous meeting were agreed.

Item 2: CSO Director General’s Report to NSB (NSB 2023-5-3)

CSO’s Director General, Pádraig Dalton, expanded upon some of main points from DG’s report to the Board. The Board welcomed the report and discussed some of the items further. Items discuss included:
Ongoing provision of EIRCODE API: The Board were updated on the latest developments in the provision of an Eircode API. The Director General highlighted the risks to the National Data Infrastructure (NDI) if IT infrastructural developments were undertaken across the civil and public service without an EIRCODE API in place. The resolution to the challenges highlights the appreciation and understanding that exists across the Irish Statistical System of the benefits of the NDI.
CSO Organisational Structure: The Board were informed of planned changes to the CSO’s organisational structure which will align the structures to the priority and growth areas. Some priority areas include Health, social care & wellbeing; Housing and Environment & climate statistics. The Board heard that the CSO structures are process based with teams, for example, focusing on data collection or analysis and reporting.
CSO Divisional Action Plans: The Director General informed the Board that the CSO were currently reviewing 2023 Divisional Action Plans and agreeing 2024 DAPS. The DAP process entails the CSO Management Board meeting with all Heads of Division. It provides a broad overview of all activities across the CSO and Irish Statistical System. As in 2023 all seconded Senior Statisticians were included in the process to report on their plans in their Departments/Offices.
Crime Statistics: The Board were informed that following the publication of the fifth Review of the Quality of Crime Statistics in October 2023, the Central Statistics Office (CSO) has lifted the 'Under Reservation' categorisation around Recorded Crime Statistics. This is possible because An Garda Síochána have introduced a range of quality measures over the last number of years which have resulted in sustained improvement in the quality of the underlying crime data.
In the context of the increasing volume and breadth of outputs from CSO, the Board considered the absorbative capacity of policy makers to identify and utilise relevant data. This is seen as a challenge as users may not know what data is available. There is a need to market available data, communicate what is available to users, and use the media as a communication channel to the public. The Board noted that IGSS and IGEES play a significant role in this respect in communicating the availability of data to relevant officials within their departments.

Item 3: NSB Statement of Strategy: review of progress on recommendations (NSB 2023-5-4)

The Board discussed items of interest from the review of progress on recommendations from the NSB Statement of Strategy. Items discuss included:
The Board discussed the EU survey on gender-based violence against women and other forms of inter-personal violence (EU-GBV) and that it is not a regulatory requirement. The Board noted that EU survey regulations are prescriptive to help ensure comparability and coherence across EU member states. However, despite standardised procedures and regulation, culture difference and perceptions between countries can affect survey results. This can be an issue in areas such as GBV and disabilities etc where subjective type questions can be interpreted differently by people. Survey preparation, questionnaire design, survey mode and cognitive test all mitigate these challenges.
The Board enquired about the scale of the CSO’s Data Stewardship reach and highlighted the importance of quality input processes across all administrative systems. The CSO has focused its Data Stewardship efforts to date on the main data collecting Government Departments. More work is required to expand their outreach to Local Authorities, Agencies and NGOs who collect administrative date.
The Board were informed of the current uses of Big Data in CSO statistical production processes. Scanner data from the majority of large grocery stores is utilised in the production of the Consumer Price Index. An EU regulation providing for legal access to privately held data for the production of official statistics is progressing through EU Commission. This will provide the legal basis to access privately held data.

Item 4: Paper on AI & ML in the CSO (Frankie Kay, CSO) NSB 2023-5-5

Frankie Kay (Assistant Director General, CSO) explained to the Board the key points from the CSO paper on Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learnings in the CSO
The Board commended Frankie and her team on the advancements already made and the strategic vision to lead in this area. The Board agreed that there is significant potential for Official Statistics in the area through efficiencies, automation and search capabilities but a cautious and stepped approach must be taken to ensure trust is maintained and concerns are addressed by communicating clearly what CSO is (and is not) doing in this area. The Board suggested that the CSO should share their expertise with the CPS, leverage skills of new graduates and collaborate with Universities in the area.

Item 5: NSB Seminar – Update (NSB 2023-5-6)

The Board were informed of the plans and preparations for the NSB seminar on the Future of How Censuses are Conducted in Ireland which will take place on February 1st 2024 in Dublin Castle.

Item 6: Developments in Statistical and Data Analytics Training in CSO

(Kathryn Foskin and Vytas Vaiciulis, CSO)
Kathryn Foskin (Statistical Training Unit, CSO) presented to the Board on developments in statistical and data analytics training in CSO. Vytas Vaiciulis (Data & Analytics Services, CSO) gave a demonstration of the SAS to R tool which was developed in the CSO using a Large Language Model which will support the migration from the SAS statistical package to the open-source R package.
The Board thanked Kathryn and Vytas for their presentations and commended their innovative work which is helping to ensure CSO remains on the cutting edge of technological developments and have the people with the skills to embrace and utilise the developments.

Item 7: CSO and Open Data (Lorenzo Bruni, Damien Roche and Neil O’Keeffe, CSO)

Lorenzo Bruni (Data & Analytics Services, CSO) presented to the Board on Open Data in the CSO and across the Irish Statistical System. With yearly traffic of 20 million hits, data through DATA.GOV.IE is at the cutting edge of Open Data provision globally.
Neil O’Keeffe (Data & Analytics Services, CSO) demonstrated how Artificial Intelligence could be utilised to improve the searchability of CSO and ISS open data holdings.
The Board thanked Lorenzo and Neil for their presentations and ground breaking work. The Board noted the scale of the open data currently available and the potentially for leveraging new technologies to increase the value, utility and accessibility of the data holdings in the future.

Item 8: Sexual Violence Survey (Helen McGrath and Keith McSweeney, CSO)

Helen McGrath (Statistician, CSO) and Keith McSweeney (Senior Statistician, CSO) presented to the Board on the results from the Sexual Violence Survey and reflections and learnings from undertaking the project.
The Board congratulated Helen, Keith and all involved with the SVS on the successful development, implementation and reporting on a very complex and sensitive survey. The Board commented how the learnings from the SVS could be used across the CSO.

Item 9: Tour of Communications & Dissemination and Printing & Visual Support
(John Byrne & David Lester, CSO)

The Board were given a tour of the Communications and Dissemination Division where John Byrne, Aeidin Sheppard and Colette Keane presented some of their work and innovations to the Board. The Board commended the work of the Division and noted that developments in the area have been integral to CSO’s ability to communicate the key insights from publications to a wider audience.
The Board were then given a tour of the Printing and Visual Supports area where Dave Lester and his team demonstrated the CSO’s printing, and audio-visual facilities. The Board congratulated Dave and his team on their great work and noted the increased use of video and sound bites to supplement publications, which increase reach and engage with a broader audience.