The Memorandum of Agreement between the CSO and the Department of Social Protection (PDF 199KB)  was signed on 20th of May 2015. The MoA continues an ongoing arrangement between the CSO and DSP, whereby the Survey on Income and Living Conditions (SILC) and Household Budget Survey (HBS) data collection units are granted access by DSP to the INFOSYS system. The agreement remains in place for a period of three years from the date of signature and must be renewed after that period, if required.

The CSO requires access to INFOSYS for the purpose of gathering social transfer and income data relating to respondents that participate in the SILC and the HBS. In order to reduce the burden on respondents (an important factor given the lengthy nature of both questionnaires) both the SILC and HBS collect the PPS number of each survey respondent and use this number to collect administrative data held on INFOSYS, for example social transfer payments etc received by survey respondents. This significantly reduces the time taken by respondents and households to answer the SILC and HBS questionnaires, as otherwise the CSO would have to ask respondents about all of the individual payment schemes that they are eligible for.