National Statistical Service (NSS)

Background

The Central Statistics Office’s (CSO) long-term strategy, CSO Vision 2030 (https://www.cso.ie/en/media/csoie/staffnews/CSO_VISION_2030.pdf) envisages that the CSO will provide statistical leadership nationally and advocate for the management of data as a strategic asset, driving the development of the Irish Statistical System (ISS) and championing the expansion of the National Data Infrastructure (NDI).

In the CSO’s Statement of Strategy 2020-2023 (https://www.cso.ie/en/media/csoie/staffnews/CSO_Statement_Of_Strategy_2020_-_2023.pdf, the CSO sets out the strategic aims:

• of developing the role of the Office as coordinator of statistical activities across all producers of Official Statistics and,
• of defining the scope of the CSO’s role as data steward within the Irish data ecosystem consistent with its legal mandate. 

The Statement of Strategy sets out CSO’s intention to build the ISS by extending the statistician secondment programme, or National Statistical Service (NSS), across the public sector, and the NSS is one of the common drivers across all of these strategies. 

The Natiional Statistical Service (NSS) Group was formed to operate as a cross-departmental forum for development of the NSS. It will support the goals of and provide updates and feedback on the progress of the NSS. 

Membership of the Group 

This group, chaired by the CSO, is comprised of seconded CSO statistical staff in the host Department/Agency (hereafter “the Host Organisation”), staff working in the CSO to support the NSS, and ISS staff who work closely with the CSO. 

With the number of seconded CSO statistical staff totalling 46 at the start of November 2024 the programme continues to grow and build a more coordinated analytical service, centrally supported by the CSO.  

The Host Organisations in which seconded CSO statistical staff are currently based are as follows:

Role of the group

The primary functions/roles of this group are as follows: 

• The group will assist in the development and regular review of the Memorandums of Understanding between the CSO and Host Organisation.
• It will support the rollout of seconded staff across government departments, including recruitment policy and communications between CSO and Host Organisations.
• It will develop policies for seconded staff, including Research Microdata File access and non-official statistical work guidelines.
• It will assist the development and implementation of NSS Continuing Professional Development (CPD).
• It will support the enhancement of the statistical capabilities in the Host Organisation and assist in the facilitating/planning of training to further develop the skills required by seconded statistical staff. This will also include, where possible, harnessing the expertise available in other Host Organisations, to cross train staff across the NSS (including the CSO).
• It will support the rollout of the NDI (National Data Infrastructure). This will include updates on issues around key NDI identifiers (PPSN, Eircode, UBI) in Host Organisations.
• It will review and identify potential pathfinder projects between CSO and Host Organisation or related agencies.
• It will assist in defining a list of Official Statistics for each public body that can then be assessed against Irish Statistical System Code of Practice (ISSCoP).
• It will progress ISSCoP and ESCoP in relation to the compilation and dissemination of Official and European Statistics.
• It will support strong co-operation between NSS and Irish Government Economic & Evaluation Service (IGEES) to improve synergy between the two networks.

Operation of the Group 

Quarterly meetings are organised, hosted and chaired by the CSO.

On demand the chairperson may invite other persons to attend and or speak to the group where the chairperson considers such a contribution may be of benefit to the role of the group. 

On demand the chairperson may invite members onto a group or team to work on specific topics or evaluate progress in specific areas where the chairperson considers such a contribution may be of benefit to the role of the group or the further development of the NSS.

Contact Details

Joseph Goode: joseph.goode@cso.ie

Eoin Heneghan: eoin.heneghan@cso.ie