Clare Daly (Dublin Fingal, Independent)
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90. To ask the Taoiseach if the Central Statistics Office, CSO, has a formal quality assurance policy and programme to assure the quality of official statistical outputs. [20378/19]

Seán Kyne (Galway West, Fine Gael)
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The CSO has a formal Quality Management Framework (QMF) which is aligned with the European Statistical System Quality Assurance Framework (ESS QAF) and with the European Statistics Code of Practice (ESCoP). Information about the QMF is published by the CSO at:

Key actions within the QMF include the use of the UN Generic Statistical Business Process Model (GSBPM) as the standard framework for managing statistical business processes in the CSO; maintenance and continuous updating of documentation and process maps for all surveys and statistical processes; metrics and indicators for each stage of statistical production; metadata based on international standards for each stage of the survey lifecycle; ongoing quality review; and data governance.

Implementation of the QMF was augmented by two dedicated CSO divisions established since 2015. The first is a dedicated Quality Management, Support and Assurance (QMSA) division of the CSO, which comprises 10 staff. In addition, the Methodology division, which comprises seven professional statistical staff, supports survey managers in developing and implementing new techniques and best practice in official statistics.

The CSO produces about 300 statistical releases and reports each year, covering a wide range of topics relating to the economy, society and the environment. Primary responsibility for the quality of statistical processes and products is vested in the managers of each statistical area, i.e. the relevant Statistician, with oversight and support from the Senior Statistician. The CSO publishes a standardised Quality Report with the majority of its statistical products. These reports are available on the CSO website and, for each survey, they contain information on statistical concepts and methods; the collection, processing and quality assurance of the data; relevance, accuracy and reliability; timeliness and punctuality; coherence; comparability; and accessibility and clarity. These reporting criteria are aligned with the ESS QAF and ESCoP and the published Quality Reports are regularly reviewed and updated. The CSO’s Management Board monitors the release calendar and compliance with quality reporting as a standing item on its agenda.

The European Statistical System (ESS) has a significant impact on the work of the CSO. About three quarters of the statistics produced by the CSO are required under EU regulations on specific statistical domains. Each regulation specifies the technical statistical requirements and requires the CSO to provide reports on methods and quality to Eurostat. Eurostat independently scrutinises and validates the data and quality reports transmitted to them.

Macroeconomic statistics are subject to especially stringent scrutiny procedures at EU level, which include the process for verification of the Gross National Income (GNI) contribution to own resources, the Excessive Deficit Procedures (EDP) in relation to Government debt and deficit, and the Macroeconomic Imbalances Procedure (MIP). These independent and external audit processes have significant compliance and reputational impacts for Ireland. They involve in-depth scrutiny of the macroeconomic statistics and of the CSO surveys used in compiling those statistics. As such, they are a comprehensive rolling review of quality throughout the CSO’s statistical work programme.

The CSO is committed to statistical quality and has aligned its quality management actions with the ESS QAF and the ESCoP. Compliance with the 15 principles in the European Statistics Code of Practice is subject to periodic independent international peer review, co-ordinated by Eurostat. The last ESCoP Peer Review of the CSO and Irish Statistical System was in 2015 and is available at: