National Statistics Board
Minutes
Venue: Department of the Taoiseach
Date: Thursday 5th February, 2015
The following Board members attended:
Dr. Patricia O’Hara (Chairperson), Mr. Tom Geraghty, Ms. Rowena Dwyer, Dr. Helen Johnston, Mr. John Callinan, Mr. Gerard O’Neill, Mr. John McCarthy and Mr. Pádraig Dalton.
Mr. Joe Treacy, Dr. Lucy Fallon-Byrne, Mr. Richard McMahon and Ms. Jennifer Banim (members of the CSO’s Senior Management Committee) were also in attendance.
Mr. Donal Kelly acted as Secretary.
The minutes of the previous meeting were accepted without amendment.
The Director General briefed the Board on a number of recent developments within CSO and at European level.
System of Health Accounts |
The first transmission of SHA results to Eurostat is scheduled for the end of Quarter 1 2015 on a voluntary basis, with transmission of SHA required under regulation by April 2016. The analysis of data for hospital-related expenditure is progressing well, with close cooperation between CSO, HSE and the Department of Health on data classification. On the private health side, collection of data by the CSO in Quarter 4 2014 from private hospitals and private health insurers has been successful with almost full response.
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Sector allocation of Irish Water |
The sector allocation process for Irish Water will start in early February following the submission to the CSO by the Department of the Environment Community and Local Government (DECLG) of a business case for classification. The rules used by EU countries to produce government debt and deficit statistics are set out in the European System of Accounts 2010 (ESA 2010). As part of the work to compile deficit and debt statistics, the CSO determines the scope of the Public Sector, including the General Government Sector. The General Government Sector excludes market producers and a set of criteria, called the market/non-market test, is used to decide whether or not a public sector body is a market producer (i.e. outside government sector). The CSO will make an initial assessment of Irish Water’s sector allocation based on the business case submitted. Eurostat - as the arbiter on the classification of public sector bodies under ESA 2010 and EDP legislation - will make the final sector classification decision on Irish Water. |
The DG explained that the CSO would carefully apply the relevant European regulations (including ESA 2010) to make a preliminary determination, which would include the ‘market non-market’ test. The DG emphasised that the final arbiter of this process would be Eurostat and that they had the power to change their determination if they felt that the estimates provided do not match the actual numbers. The DG pointed out that in the absence of a Eurostat decision before the March EDP transmission that Irish Water would be allocated to the General Government sector on a provisional basis.
National Accounts IT Project
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At the end of November 2014, the new system for annual National Income and Expenditure (NIE) statistics was delivered to users. An end-to-end test of the system was carried out in December, with the new system replicating the results for key NIE tables. User acceptance testing will be completed by mid-February 2015 and the new system will be used to produce NIE 2014 results scheduled for release in June 2015. The migration to a new structure for National Accounts divisions that reflects and supports the processing stages of the new system will be complete by mid-March 2015.
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Environment Statistics |
A new Environment and Energy Division will be established in the CSO in Quarter 1 2015 as part of the developments arising from the CSO Business Case to DPER.
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Framework Regulation for Business Statistics (FRIBS)
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The Eurostat proposal for a new enterprise definition has been withdrawn by Eurostat. This is a significant positive development, which Ireland took a lead role on regarding engaging with Eurostat and other Member States. The existing enterprise definition will now remain in effect, one which Ireland is compliant with. |
SIMSTAT1 |
The CSO are still engaged on significant consultations on the SIMSTAT proposals with other Member States and Eurostat, and alternatives to the core SIMSTAT proposals of NSIs using other NSI export data are being actively explored.
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Household Finance and Consumption Survey
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The results of the 2013 Household Finance Consumption Survey were published on the 29th January last. This was the first CSO household survey collecting detailed information on household assets and liabilities. It also collected data on income, consumption and credit constraints. The CSO already has long established surveys on household income (EU SILC) and consumption (Household Budget Survey). The HFCS now provides complementary information on household wealth. |
Household Survey Development Project |
Significant progress has been achieved in implementing the Household Survey Development Project. A large component of the project involves the introduction of telephone interviewing for follow-up Quarterly National Household Survey interviews. The selection process for the outsourcing of the CATI (Computer Assisted Telephone Interviewing) is almost complete. A preferred bidder has been identified and will be notified in early February.
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Mobile Phone data for Tourism statistics |
The CSO’s Administrative Data Centre is currently involved in a pilot project to assess the feasibility of using mobile phone data for tourism statistics. In this project the CSO will not collect any information that would allow it to identify individuals. For example, information such as customer phone number, dialled numbers and communication content are not relevant to the statistical purpose of this activity and will therefore not be collected by the CSO. It is envisaged that experimental outputs from this new data source will be produced by the end of the year.
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Regulation 223/2009 |
Agreement was reached between the Parliament and the Council on the amendments to the EU regulation on European Statistics in December under the Italian Presidency. The amendment to the regulation includes measures aimed at ensuring confidence in Statistics and a commitment on confidence in statistics is sought for Member States. This political commitment should include specific policy commitments to improve or maintain, as necessary, the conditions for the implementation of the Code of Practice. In the absence of the Commitment on Confidence a progress report on the implementation of the Code of Practice will have to be published every two years. The Head of the NSI will also now have the responsibility to coordinate the statistical activities, not only of the NSI but of all national authorities that are responsible for European statistics. |
European Statistics Code of Practice Peer Review |
The European Statistics Code of Practice Peer Review is scheduled for the week of 23 to 27 March 2015. The first day of the review, Monday 23 March, will include a meeting with the National Statistics Board. |
Item 3: Update on CSO resources (NSB 2015/1/4)
As announced in Budget 2015 the moratorium on staffing and the Employment Control Framework for the Public Service have been lifted, and replaced by a system of delegated sanction, under which Departments/Offices have freedom to recruit and promote staff up to and including AP-equivalent, subject to adherence to binding 3 year pay ceilings. Staffing resources must be managed within these overall ceilings. Specific terms and conditions attaching to CSO delegated sanction have to be complied with in full and the Accounting Officer (Director General) must be satisfied that arrangements to manage pay and staff allocation are robust and that staffing levels are sustainable in the medium term.
Item 4: NSB Strategy – third draft (NSB 2015/1/5)
The Board reviewed the third draft of the new strategy document in detail. The focus and target audience for the strategy were discussed, and suggestions were made about the handling of key issues and the structure of the recommendations. Board members were invited to make further written comments before the next meeting.
The merits of a National Statistics Board seminar in the spring of 2015 to launch the Strategy document were discussed.
The next meeting of the Board will take place on April 23rd 2015 at the Department of the Taoiseach.