NATIONAL STATISTICS BOARD

Venue: Virtual Meeting

Date: Thursday June 10, 2021 at 10.00am

Agenda

National Statistics Board

Minutes

The meeting took place remotely using video conferencing software.

Date:     Thursday 10th June 2021

Members present: Ms. Anne Vaughan (Chairperson), Ms. Eithne Fitzgerald, Mr. John Martin, Dr. Eimear Cotter, Mr. John Shaw and Mr. John McCarthy.

Apologies: Mr. Gerard Brady, Mr. Pádraig Dalton

Non-members in attendance:  Mr. Paul Morrin, Ms. Francesca Kay (CSO Senior Management) and Ms. Claire Hanley (Secretary). Mr. John McKeon (Secretary General, Department of Social Protection) attended for item 2.

Item 1:  Minutes of NSB meeting April 15, 2021 

The minutes of the previous meeting were agreed.   

Item 2: Presentation by John McKeon, Secretary General, Department of Social Protection

The Board invited John McKeon (Department of Social Protection) to present his thoughts on the Irish Statistical System (ISS). He raised a number of issues for discussion, including:

• The role of the CSO and ISS as a guardian of truth and dealing with the misuse of data;
• The power and role of administrative data and data as a public good;
• Moving away from more traditional methods of data collection and the benefits of real-time data;
• The need to highlight and promote the value of data sharing throughout the public sector.

The Board discussed the importance of the Department of Social Protection signing up to ISS Code of Practice. The Board agreed on the importance of administrative data in compiling official statistics and standardising definitions to ensure compatibility of data for the purposes of data linking. The Department of Social Protection agreed to nominate an individual to Chair the National Data Infrastructure (NDI) Champions sub-group to drive the adoption of Eircodes on public sector data holdings, as recommended in the NSB strategy.

The issues raised on communications were discussed further by the Board and it was agreed that this topic would be reflected on further and returned to at a future meeting.

Item 3: Update on current challenges

Francesca Kay (CSO) updated the Board on the steps CSO are taking to manage IT security risks, including the challenges and next steps. The Board welcomed the update and agreed that this item would be discussed at future meetings.

Item 4: CSO Director General’s Report to NSB (NSB 2021-3-3)

Paul Morrin (CSO), on behalf of the Director General, briefed the Board on a number of recent strategic developments within CSO. The Board welcomed the update and some issues were discussed further, these included:    

• NDI developments; the Board welcomed plans by the Revenue Commissioners to collect the Eircode on the Local Property Tax file.
• The Irish Government Statistical Service strategy which is currently being developed; it was agreed that the Board would have an opportunity to provide feedback before the document is finalised.
• Meetings of CSO groups^[1] established to focus on the examination of a particular policy issue or set of related issues. The Board requested that updates on the frequency of such group meetings be incorporated into the Director General’s report to the NSB.
• The Board asked about ongoing preparations for the implementation of Blended Working in the CSO, in line with the Government decision that 20% of public servants should be working remotely by the end of 2021. Details are still being finalised.
• In relation to Environment and Climate statistics, the Board discussed opportunities around remote sensing data and welcomed the possibility of the CSO conducting a pilot citizen science internet-based data collection.
• The Board welcomed the CSOs launch of a new section on their website ‘National Accounts Explained’ and the planned publication of a new constant price Net National Income indicator; and asked about the challenges for users when interpreting the various indicators in this domain.

Item 5: Evaluation of the NSB Strategy (NSB 2021-3-4)

The Board discussed an approach to evaluating the progress on the recommendations and actions outlined in the NSB Strategy 2021-2026, including an implementation plan which will tie in with the actions outlined in the previous NSB strategy and the CSOs Statement of Strategy 2020-2023; agreed KPIs; and assignment of responsible organisations. The Board agreed to discuss a first draft of the implementation plan at their September 2021 meeting with a view to a full discussion in December 2021 and every six months thereafter.

Item 6:  Any other business

The next meeting of the Board will take place on September 9, 2021. The Board agreed that the September meeting would address challenges for health data as this is one of the key themes of the NSB strategy.

Item 7:  Private discussion

A short discussion took place for non-CSO Board members.

 https://www.cso.ie/en/aboutus/lgdp/cgt/ocg/csogroups/