NATIONAL STATISTICS BOARD

Venue: Virtual Meeting

Date: Wednesday April 27, 2022 at 10.00am

Agenda

National Statistics Board

Minutes

The meeting took place in Government Buildings and was a hybrid meeting.

Date:     Wednesday 27th April 2022

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

Non-members in attendance:  Mr. Paul Morrin (CSO Senior Management) and Ms. Claire Hanley (Secretary). Siobhán Nic Thighearnáin and Martin Tully (Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage); Dr. Rachel Slaymaker (ESRI); and Kieran Culhane (CSO) attended for item 4.

Item 1:  Minutes of NSB meeting February 3, 2022 (NSB 2022-2-2)

The minutes of the previous meeting were agreed.

Item 2: CSO Director General’s Report to NSB (NSB 2022-2-3)

The Director General, Pádraig Dalton, briefed the Board on a number of recent strategic developments relating to the priorities and actions set out in the NSBs Strategic Priorities for Official Statistics 2021-2026. Some issues were discussed further, these included:    

• IT security and cloud strategy: The Board welcomed recent actions by the CSO to increase resources and operations around IT security and discussed plans to move to cloud storage over the coming years. CSO are currently drafting a Cloud Strategy document which will be shared with the Board.
• Census 2022: The Board were updated on the progress of the Census 2022 field exercise and the challenges faced by enumerators. The time capsule, which appeared for the first time in 2022, was positively received by the public. The Board commended Cormac Halpin who developed the idea for the time capsule on the Census form. A preliminary count will be available by end-June 2022.
• Differential impact of inflation by household characteristics: The Board welcomed plans by the CSO to publish a research paper in May on the differential impact of inflation on different categories of households, following the strong interest in inflation and work published by the Central Bank in February on Household Characteristics, Irish Inflation and the Cost of Living[1]. The Board asked when the Household Budget Survey (HBS) weights will be updated and were informed that the HBS is going to the field in September 2022.
• Monthly indicator of employment from PMOD: The Board were updated on a new monthly indicator of employment using administrative data from the Revenue PMOD file which will be launched in May and discussed the challenge of creating an additional source and the importance of strategic communication when launching an alternative source e.g., how it compares to the LFS. The similar exercise on earnings was suggested, dependant on resources.
• Real-time (flash) GDP estimates: The Board welcomed plans by the CSO to produce GDP estimates at T+30 by end-2022. They highlighted the risk of revisions and the potential timeliness versus quality trade-off.
• Blended working: The Board were updated on the current blended working policy in CSO, which requires in-office attendance for a minimum of 2 days per week. A final policy is currently being drafted in line with Government policy.
• Ukrainian data: The Board were updated on the ongoing work at CSO to provide inputs needed to support the cross departmental data collection required to manage the government response to the Ukrainian crisis.
• Safety of the Person Survey: The Board were updated on the Safety of the Person Survey which is due to be launched mid-2022.
• Budget process: The Board discussed their role in assessing resources for the compilation of official statistics and assisting in raising awareness of the CSO and the service it provides to the system e.g., data linking/integration opportunities

Item 3:  European Statistics Code of Practice (ES CoP) Peer Review recommendations

The Board was updated on the outcome of the ES CoP peer review which took place in February 2022:

• The report from the peer review team was very positive, with zero non-compliance issues listed. i.e., Ireland is fully compliant with the ES CoP.
• The report gave 20 recommendations, only 4 of which that do not overlap with the current CSO and NSB strategies.
• There were 20 recommendations made by the peer review team and these will be circulated to the Board once the final report has been signed off.

The Board congratulated the CSO and discussed the merits of funding for additional CSO projects being allocated to CSO’s core budget.  

Item 4: Housing Data

Siobhán Nic Thighearnáin and Martin Tully (Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage); Dr. Rachel Slaymaker (ESRI); and Kieran Culhane (CSO) presented on various aspects of housing data.

The Department gave a brief outline of their Data Strategy which includes ‘joined up data’ as a key theme and promotes identifiers to facilitate data linking both within the Department and with other PSBs; the challenges faced in managing data e.g., data governance and standardisation, making it difficult to join the dots or identify the gaps; current outputs including a suite of data available to inform policy which they are working to make more timely; and future work which includes a data and insight service by end-2022.

The ESRI outlined the challenges they face when using housing data such as issues with definitions e.g., housing tenure type and rental costs; discontinued series e.g., DHLGH Building Cost Index; other data gaps e.g., lack of data on land costs; and the importance of data linking and improved access to link microdata access for researchers which would be hugely beneficial for housing analysis.

The CSO presented their current outputs for housing; ongoing collaborations throughout the Irish Statistical System such as the CSO Housing Statistical Working Group and the CSO-Revenue Liaison Group; and plans for future outputs, including vacancy indicators, indicating that resources are an issue along with discontinued and fragmented data sources.

The Board welcomed the progress in this area and sought clarification on issues including data availability on the lag between planning permissions and completions; data on construction workforce and a breakdown of the skillset e.g., retrofitting; and the potential of data sources such as Revenue’s Local Property Tax file to address gaps in vacancy data or using stamp duty returns to determine land prices.

The Board discussed the importance of data linking to provide much needed insight in this area and also the importance of designing data systems in Government Departments with data analytics in mind. The CSO, if adequately resourced to expand its Data Stewardship role, is well positioned to assist Departments with data linking and analysis to help deliver on the insight required to fill the data gaps in this area. The assistance provided by the CSO in helping to inform the COVID pandemic and the Ukrainian refugee crisis can be replicated for other areas if the necessary resources are assigned.

Item 5:  Any other business

The next meeting of the Board will take place on June 16, 2022 and the Board agreed to invite a representative from the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform to discuss aspects of the NSB Statement of Strategy.

Item 6:  Private discussion

A discussion took place for non-CSO Board members.

[1]https://www.centralbank.ie/docs/default-source/publications/economic-letters/household-characteristics-irish-inflation-and-the-cost-of-living.pdf?sfvrsn=7