NATIONAL STATISTICS BOARD

Venue: Virtual Meeting

Date: Thursday September 9, 2021 at 10.00am

Agenda

National Statistics Board

Minutes

The meeting took place remotely using video conferencing software.

Date:     Thursday 2nd December 2021

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

Apologies: Mr. John McCarthy

Non-members in attendance:  Mr. Paul Morrin (CSO Senior Management) and Ms. Claire Hanley (Secretary). Mr. Gerry Clabby (Department of the Environment, Climate and Communications) and Mr. Gerry Brady (CSO) attended for item 4.

Item 1:  Minutes of NSB meeting September 9, 2021

The minutes of the previous meeting were agreed.   

Item 2: CSO Director General’s Report to NSB 

The Director General, Pádraig Dalton, briefed the Board on the budget cycle for 2022 and 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:    

• The Irish Population Estimates from Administrative Data Sources (IPEADS) was published as a frontier output on 2nd December 2021. This release uses an experimental method to count the Irish population that was usually resident in April 2020 based on a ‘signs of life’ approach using administrative data. IPEADS clearly highlights the real potential of administrative data and the value of the NDI, including the benefits of increasing Eircode coverage on administrative data holdings. The Board welcomed the new IPEADS publication and discussed the complexities around data governance throughout the project. The Board is invited to provide feedback on the publication.
• A new publication in CSO’s Frontier Series was released on 2^nd December entitled ‘Income, Employment and Welfare Analysis of People with a Disability 2019’. CSO Frontier Series may use new methods which are under development and / or data sources which may be incomplete, for example new administrative data sources. Publishing outputs under the Frontier Series allows the CSO to provide useful new information to users and get informed feedback on these new methods and outputs whilst at the same time make sure that the limitations are well explained and understood.
• The CSO is in the initial stages of preparing for a survey of Users and non-Users and, following a procurement process, Coyne Research were selected to conduct these surveys. The Board discussed the approach to the survey particularly in relation to insights learnt from the 2017 customer survey; capturing views on CSO’s use of social media; and the need for a better approach to the non-user survey. A link to the draft user survey will be circulated to Board members in the coming weeks and feedback is invited.
• The Board was informed that, as things stand in relation to COVID-19 restrictions, the Census of Population 2022 will go ahead as planned in April 2022. The Board discussed the challenges in recruiting Census enumerators in comparison to previous Censuses.
• CSOs assistance with and launch of the Well-being hub was acknowledged by the Board. This launch was the culmination of an Interdepartmental project chaired by the Department of an Taoiseach (DoT).
• The Board was updated on the outcome of the budget process for CSO for 2022 and discussed its statutory role in assessing the resources which should be made available for official statistics; the approach to the estimates process in future; and the timing of its role in this process.

Item 3:  CSO Statement of Strategy Roadmap

The draft CSO Statement of Strategy Roadmap was provided to the NSB for information to give an overview of current actions underway at the CSO. It is envisaged that the timeline for actions over the next three years will be finalised in Q1 2022, once the impact of the budget 2022 outcome has been reviewed by the CSO.

The Board was asked for feedback on how the roadmap could be developed to include the NSB priorities and actions set out in the NSB Strategy 2021-2026. The CSO’s preference is to have one implementation plan which will cover both the CSO and NSB strategies. Feedback from the NSB included:

• If one implementation plan is developed for both strategies, the view should be interchangeable depending on the user.
• On the question of whether a Key Performance Indicator (KPI) is required for all NSB priorities (P1-P8) and actions (A1-A10); the possibility of developing KPIs at priority level was suggested or a mix of KPIs at priority and action level.
• The timeline should reflect a mix of both short-term and long-term actions.

It was agreed that the implementation plan would be further developed and discussed at the February 2022 NSB meeting.

Item 4: Environment & Climate -

Using data to track the implementation of the Climate Action Plan 2021 

Gerry Clabby (Department of the Environment, Climate and Communications) presented the key features of the Climate Action Plan 2021 (CAP 2021) which includes targets such as a 51% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by 2030 and net-zero emissions by 2050. The overall measures that need to be implemented by each sector[1] to achieve these targets have been identified in the CAP 2021; the types of actions identified include building retrofits, increased use of renewable heat sources such as heat pumps, and a ban on the use of fossil fuels in new homes. Gerry outlined the need for data in evaluating the progress of the actions to be implemented by each sector as they work towards the emission outcomes which must be achieved.

The Board agreed that a lot of data and research already exists in this area and that it is a complex and highly contested space. They highlighted the importance of identifying and understanding: the data which already exists; the specific data/statistics required to measure the progress being made towards the targets; the data gaps; and the contribution the CSO could make to bridge those gaps. They also highlighted the need to support the whole data life cycle – collection, processing, analysis - to ensure that schemes collect information for statistical purposes as well as administrative purposes.

The Board discussed the number of organisations involved in this space from a data perspective and felt that a coordinated approach is needed. It was suggested that a seminar could be held in mid-2022 aimed at bringing some of the key players together.

Gerry Brady (CSO) gave a brief summary of the data already available from the CSO and outlined an Input-Output approach currently being examined by the CSO and whether this would provide the required data to monitoring the extent and impact of reducing emissions.

The Board noted that the data requirements to track the CAP 2021 implementation indicators are work-in-progress and agreed that this topic would be discussed further in Q2, 2022, once the data requirements have been further developed.

Item 5:  Any other business

The next meeting of the Board will take place on February 3, 2022 and the theme will be ‘Communications’.

The European Statistics Code of Practice (ES CoP) peer review meeting for Ireland will take place the week beginning 14^th February 2022. NSB members will be invited to attend, and the Board will be informed of the date and time once the agenda has been finalised nlt end-December 2021.

Item 6:  Private discussion

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

[1] The sectors that emission targets have been set for are: Electricity; Transport; Buildings; Industry; Agriculture; and Land Use, Land Use Change and Forestry (LULUCF).