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› Minutes of Meeting 1 - 7th October 2010
10.30 - 10.45 Introduction
Steve MacFeely, CSO
10.45 - 11.15 Membership, logistics and Terms of Reference
All members
11.15 - 11.35 Outline CSO Core Business Activities & Developments
Richard McMahon, CSO
11.35 - 11.55 Outline CSO Thematic Business Activities & Developments
Joe Madden, CSO
11.55 - 12.15 Outline CSO cost and burden reduction strategies
Steve MacFeely, CSO
12.15 - 12.35 Agree future dates, possible agenda points & areas for future cooperation
All members
12.35 - 12.40 AOB
Attendance:
Richard McMahon (Chair) Central Statistics Office
Joe Madden (Secretary) Central Statistics Office
Steve MacFeely Central Statistics Office
Geraldine Anderson Irish Business & Employers Confederation
Jonathan Healy Forfas
Deborah Quinn Forfas
Adele Bergin Economic & Social Research Institute
Jim Curran Irish Small & Medium Sized Enterprises Association
Adrian O'Donoghue BMW Regional Assembly
Alma Murnane Chambers Ireland
Alan Sherlock Small Firms Association
Apologies:
Gerry Monks Dept. Enterprise, Trade and Innovation
The minutes are given in the order of the agreed agenda.
The CSO outlined its vision for the liaison group on enterprise statistics which it hopes will provide a formal consultation forum for producers and users of official enterprise statistics. The CSO emphasised the strategic importance the office attached to consultation with providers and users of statistics and referred to earlier consultative and liaison groups in the areas of transport, tourism and prices which had proved very beneficial to all involved. The CSO also referred to its use of seminars as a means of communicating with users and reported positive feedback from recent initiatives.
The CSO hoped that the Enterprise Statistics Group (ESG) would play an important role in assessing the needs and priorities of key national users of business and enterprise statistics. It is hoped that the group will also facilitate the effective exchange of information on all areas of business and enterprise statistics between the main data providers, compilers and users of these statistics.
Suggested topics for consideration included, feedback on current outputs, identification of gaps, requirements for statistics, EU regulations, modes of data collection, dissemination issues, use of administrative data, respondent burden, the need for improvements in statistical infrastructure (e.g. unique identifier) and the efficient use of scarce resources.
The draft Terms of Reference for the ESG were discussed and agreed.
It was agreed that the membership of the group should reflect keys users, the research community and data providers. In addition to the current membership, it was suggested that the CRO, the Department of Finance and the Revenue Commissioners should be invited to join the group. It was agreed also that members could bring colleagues to future meetings as appropriate.
Members were encouraged to suggest topics and produce discussion papers for future meetings. Regarding the frequency of meetings, it was decided that at least one meeting be held each year but that meetings could be called in response to need.
Richard McMahon, CSO gave a presentation on CSO core business activities and developments
Items discussed included:
Current activities and outputs;
The importance of small and medium enterprises;
Use of administrative data to cover SMEs;
Modes of data collection and dissemination;
The new short-term Services output index;
The quality and comparability of earnings results from different source.
Joe Madden, CSO gave a presentation on thematic business statistics and developments in the CSO
Items discussed included:
Current activities and outputs;
The need to publish results from the 'Access to Finance' survey;
The outsourcing survey and plans to repeat;
The adequacy of Innovation/R&D statistics?;
Steve MacFeely, CSO gave a presentation on CSO cost and burden reduction strategies
Items discussed included:
Electronic access to company accounts;
Need for Unique Business Identifier (UBI);
Possible expanded role for Central Business Register (CBR);
Usefulness of postal codes;
Harmonised accounting taxonomy;
Data protection and confidentiality;
Sample rotation:-use of Cohort approach to sample firms for a fixed period only;
Communication with data providers;
Next CSO seminar was slated for March 2011 on the topic 'Innovation statistics'.
Re next meeting: Possible dates to be circulated in January 2011
Possible agenda items: Members have the option to propose future agenda items.
These might include:
Items referred to above;
Reports on data collections in own organisation;
Sample rotation issues;
Need for statistics on entrepreneurship;
Increased use of redundancy information in tracking movements in labour market.
No items discussed here
Joe Madden (Secretary)
10-11-2010
› Burden and Costs (PPT 291KB)
› Mainstream Enterprise Statistics (PPT 353KB)