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› Minutes of Meeting 3 - 23rd November 2011
Attendance:
Richard McMahon - (chair) Central Statistics Office(CSO)
Joe Madden - (secretary) CSO
Steve MacFeely - CSO
Stefanie Haller - Economic & Social Research Institute
Jim Curran - Irish Small & Medium Sized Enterprises Association (ISME)
Jonathan Healy - Forfas
Gerard Monks - Dept. Enterprise, Trade & Innovation
Adrian O'Donoghue - BMW Regional Assembly
Sean Murphy - Chambers Ireland
Catherine Finneran - CSO
Norita Murphy - CSO
Michael Connolly - CSO
Damien Malone - CSO
Apologies:
Geraldine Anderson - Irish Business & Employers Confederation (IBEC)
Tom McGovern - Companies Registration Office (CRO)
Alma Murnane - Chambers Ireland
Avine McNally - Small Firms Association (SFA)
Marie Bourke - Forfas
Deborah Quinn - Forfas
The minutes are given in the order of the agreed agenda.
Introduction
In his opening comments the chairman welcomed the members in attendance and thanked Stefanie Haller and the ESRI for facilitating the meeting. He reminded members of the main aim of the Enterprise Statistics Group (ESG) group which was to bring together in a formal consultation forum, producers and users of official enterprise statistics and also representatives of data providers, emphasising that the CSO hoped that the group would play an important role in assessing the needs and priorities of key national users of Business and Enterprise statistics.
Minutes of meeting on 24-05-2010
These were agreed without amendment. In matters arising from the minutes, ISME expressed a keen interest in the ATF survey conducted by the CSO and hoped that it would be repeated asap.
Outline CSO Trade Statistics
Norita Murphy, CSO gave a presentation on CSO Trade statistics referring to the need for these statistics arising from national needs, a revised EU Regulation and changes in Revenue requirements. She also referred to the current legal requirement which was enforced by a Statutory Instrument. Norita indicated that CSO were always mindful of response burden issues and was always considering how this burden might be reduced. The presentation also covered edit procedures, methodology and steps taken to ensure consistency of data. It also covered future plans for an enhanced monthly release and an annual release focussing on enterprises.
Outline CSO Balance of Payments Statistics
Catherine Finneran, CSO gave a presentation on CSO Balance of Payments (BOP) and International Trade in Services statistics. The presentation covered the various BOP data collections by sector and type of company and also gave details on the dissemination of results. Quarterly and annual results were published nationally and were also sent to international agencies such as the ECB, Eurostat and the OECD. The presentation outlined how the BOP related to the National Accounts and referred to the cooperation and interaction between the Central Bank and CSO. The presentation also covered data editing and processing, data confidentiality issues, publication details, burden on response issues, problems faced and future plans.
Outline CSO National Accounts Statistics
Michael Connolly, CSO gave a presentation on National Account statistics. The presentation referred, inter alia, to the sectoral dimension of the accounts and also to the globalisation aspects. Reference was made to the consistency network in the CSO and to the newly created Large Cases Unit (LCU) which was set up to ensure consistency in the treatment of data from the larger companies reporting to CSO. The presentation also referred to the wide range of analyses carried out on the National Accounts and to the importance of large multinational enterprises. Other aspects covered included the redistribution of income and savings.
Discussion (1)
Following the presentations above, the main focus in the first discussions that followed were the Trade statistics, the National accounts and the use of Credit Card data. A summary of the discussion points is given below:-
Trade statistics
· Need for more accuracy in relation to the ultimate destination of Merchandise Exports – it was suggested that some goods can be stored in warehouses in interim locations thereby distorting the origin/destination picture
· Some criticism of the coverage of ‘software’ in the trade statistics and a suggestion that CSO look into the software issue to seek a better recording system.
· Need to update product description codes to more accurately describe newer products
In reply, CSO explained that description codes used in the trade statistics were internationally agreed and regularly revised
· Need to improve the timeliness and range of categories covered in Services Trade data
· Need for greater disaggregation of results and the need for greater product group detail
· Need to disaggregate services trade data for Northern Ireland from the overall United Kingdom totals
· Need to resolve discrepancies in pairs of trade data reported by the exporting and importing countries
In reply, CSO described the assymetries that can arise in use of mirror trade statistics
National accounts
· Need to measure the impact of smuggling in the economy
· Query on the level of retrospection available for the National Accounts (from 1960 ?)
· Query on the modus operandi of the LCU
Credit card data
· CSO outlined the likely usefulness of data on credit card transactions and gave an update on some steps already taken to try and secure access to these data
· The importance of having soundly based and timely statistics on the level of e-commerce purchases and sales was discussed. It was suggested that CSO continue to ask the relevant questions in the ICT survey but also in SBS questionnaires
· CSO outlined an excellent example of very useful research being carried out at present by the merging of micro data files from the SBS, CIS (community innovation survey) and ICT surveys
Outline Forfas Enterprise Surveys
Jonathan Healy, Forfas gave a presentation on the Annual Business Employment Survey (ABSEI) conducted by Forfas. He outlined that the survey was in fact a census of agency assisted enterprises and was used to track the performance of these enterprises over time.The presentation dealt with all aspects of the survey and included data coverage, data validation, timeframes, estimation of non-response and dissemination issues. Some results and time series from the surveys were also presented
Discussion (2)
ABSEI survey
· Need for the survey queried (why not use existing SBS results?) and also the non availablity of micro data for analysis by researchers.
In response, Forfas outlined their need to get up to date and timely data on agency assisted companies and indicated that the SBS timeframe of t+18m was too delayed. Forfas also referred to their confidentiality concerns about releasing micro data.
Unique Business Identifier (UBI)
· Steve MacFeely gave an update on the quest for a UBI. He gave an update on the Public Service Reform Plan and highlighted a number of recommendations. Rec. 2.3 referred to the development of an approach for the consistent identification of residence across the public sector and Steve asked why not use the existing PPSNs. He outlined Rec 2.6 which referred to the improvement in the sharing of data on business across the public sector and asked why not use the existing Revenue identifiers as a starting point.
The meeting acknowledged that the discussions towards the end of the meeting were most interesting and informative. This might suggest that less time be allocated to presentations in the future.
Date for next meeting:- to be decided by consultation.