Back to Top

 Skip navigation

In April 2021, the Director-General of the Central Statistics Office (CSO), Mr. Pádraig Dalton, and the Chairman of the Revenue Commissioners (Revenue), Mr. Niall Cody, signed a revised ‌Memorandum Of Understanding (PDF 377KB) (MoU) covering enhanced data cooperation between the two Offices.

The revised agreement updates the third version of the MoU, signed in June 2018, which reflected a growing need to maximise the use of administrative data for statistical purposes in order to reduce the overall administrative burden on businesses and to generate enhanced statistical outputs in support of evidence-based policy making.

Since the existence of the 2009 MoU, which has enabled the CSO to realign its processes in recent years to ensure a more systematic use of administrative data for statistical purposes originating in Revenue. As part of this realignment, the CSO has adopted Revenue’s Customer Number as a common business identifier and restructured its business register to one based on the Revenue registration system. The agreement has facilitated the CSO in producing wider and deeper statistical analyses and has also led to a diminution of the administrative burden on businesses arising from CSO surveys.

The revised MoU aims to continue to advance the objectives underlying the original agreement. It reflects environmental and process changes which have taken place in recent years, and it builds upon the close relationship established between the two Offices in that time.

Amongst the topics covered in the revised MoU are data transfer and usage matters, the terms of reference for a Liaison Group (a formal, high-level mechanism for consultation and communication between the two Offices), and arrangements for operational interaction between liaison officers. The agreement reaffirms the CSO undertaking that all data received from Revenue are treated as strictly confidential and are used for statistical purposes only, in accordance with the Statistics Act, 1993 and EU statistical law, and also in conformity with the Data Protection Acts.