The Central Statistics Office makes extensive use of administrative and other data to broaden the range, scope and depth of analysis that it can provide to support evidence based policy making while at the same time minimise the burden to respondents.
This seminar will highlight some ongoing work within CSO with regard to using administrative data and will also showcase some creative non-CSO case studies, which illustrate how publically available datasets can be used to generate information. This is an ideal opportunity to learn about some the opportunities and challenges that face official statistics, both in Ireland and internationally.
The seminar also offers a great chance to meet many of the CSO statisticians, who will be happy to answer any questions you might have or discuss what data are available to best suit your needs.
The seminar will be of interest to:
Firms and their representative organizations;
Government officials;
Academics and students;
Anyone with a particular interest in agriculture, business, education, crime or with a general interest in the compilation of information from administrative or internet sources.
Venue: Dublin Castle, Coach House, Dublin 2
Time: 13.30
Date: September 29, 2011
To Register: Email: corporate.support@cso.ie
or
Contact: Fionnuala Murray 021 - 453 5495
The “From Administrative Data to Official Statistics – 2” seminar was hosted by CSO on September 29, 2011 in the Coach House, Dublin Castle.
The theme underlying this seminar was Reduce – Recycle – Reuse. Reuse or recycle existing data, whether already held by CSO or other administrative data sources, so that respondent burden and costs can be reduced. This seminar showcased some examples of how the CSO is making progress towards these goals.
This seminar also illustrated how not just national policy makers but also local decision makers can use statistics to achieve positive outcomes. It also provided a glimpse into the future, by highlighting the potential of emerging data sources, such as social media, and some possible implications of these data for official statistics.
The seminar programme was:
John Dunne of the CSO set out the background and context to the seminar in his opening remarks and chaired the session thereafter. As ever, the mix of CSO and guest speakers made for a very thought provoking and varied afternoon interspersed with active and lively discussion and debate.
Fiona O’Callaghan from CSO presented on how cooperation with Dept. of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food allowed the Census of Agriculture (and subsequently a number of other agriculture) questionnaires to be significantly simplified and reduced in size. Future plans to try and piggy-back on the Single Farm Payment were also outlined. Marie-Therese Kilmartin and Sorcha Lowry from Colaiste Bride gave a fascinating illustration of how they used the small area statistics from the Census of the Population to support a strategic plan for the school which in turn has led to a number of tangible developments and improvements. Tim Lenihan (CSO) outlined how they have industrialized matching records where no unique identifiers are available using data provided by the Probation Services and the Garda Siochana.
Jillian Delaney (CSO) showcased the Business Demography statistics and how these could be used to better understand developments in the market economy. James Eggers (a 17 year old student from St. Michaels College in Dublin) gave an excellent presentation, outlining his work on using Twitter to compile national and regional mood indices and time series. This was complimented by Steve Vale from UNECE who gave a talk on how the exponential growth in electronic data, such as social media, may impact on official statistics. This provoked a very interesting discussion regarding privacy and confidentiality.
A common theme emerging from all the CSO papers was the necessity for cooperation with administrative and policy departments.
69 people attended the seminar, representing a broad range of data users and suppliers from academia, government departments and agencies etc.
Seminar - Guest Type (%)
