I was trying to be helpful to the Opposition. The statement reads as follows:
1. EC Statistical Requirements.
There is a considerable overlap between national and EC statistical priorities. Legal and other obligations under EC Directives, Regulations and special agreements limit the scope for redeploying existing CSO resources to statistics that might be of particular national relevance. The balance between competing demands is kept under continual review by the National Statistics Board which guides the strategic direction of the CSO.
The obligation to meet EC statistical requirement has improved the Irish statistical system since the country joined the Community in 1973. Examples of statistics that might otherwise have been developed at a different pace are:
—Annual Labour Force Survey,
—Annual Census of Industrial Enterprises,
—Monthly Industrial Production Inquiry,
—Monthly Industrial Turnover Index,
—Annual Road Freight Survey,
—Labour Cost Surveys (every four years).
EC requirements are, however, often more detailed (e.g. in terms of information to be collected and sectors to be distinguished) than would normally be required for national purposes.
The EC contributes partially to the cost of compiling statistics for Community purposes. The amount expected in 1993 is approximately £2.5 million; the gross 1993 CSO Estimate is £14.76 million. EC contributions mainly relate to start-up and development costs although an annual contribution is made towards the cost of the annual Labour Force Survey.
2. Household Budget Survey.
The most recent large-scale Household Budget Survey was conducted in 1987. A summary release giving the main national results was issued in August 1989, and the two volumes of the detailed report were published in December 1989 and June 1990. The next Household Budget Survey is scheduled for 1994. This will continue the established seven-year cycle for undertaking these surveys and related Consumer Price Index weighting updatings, namely:
HBS
|
CPI
|
1987
|
November 1989
|
1980
|
November 1982
|
1973
|
November 1975
|
1965-66
|
November 1968
|
Small-scale urban Household Budget Surveys were undertaken in each of the years 1974-1979. A small-scale survey was again undertaken on a national basis (i.e. covering both urban and rural households) in 1981 but was discontinued in 1982 as a result of Government economy measures.
3. National Accounts Publication Schedule.
The National Accounts for 1992 will be published in June (i.e. within six months of the year-end). Based on the information to hand only two other EC Member States (i.e. Germany and France) appear to have already published first estimates for 1992.
Publication dates of the National Accounts results over the past ten years were as follows:
Reference year
|
Publication date
|
Delay in months
|
1982
|
August, 1984
|
20
|
1983*
|
August, 1985
|
20
|
1984*
|
August, 1985
|
8
|
1985
|
July, 1986
|
7
|
1986
|
August, 1987*
|
8
|
1987
|
August, 1988
|
8
|
1988
|
September, 1989
|
9
|
1989
|
October, 1990
|
10
|
1990
|
November, 1991
|
11
|
1991
|
July, 1992
|
7
|
1992
|
June, 1993
|
6
|
(Expected)
|
|
|
*Results were first published in the Department of Finance's Review and Outlook. Printing difficulties delayed the publication of the National Income and Expenditure report to the following December.
The current Irish publication schedule compares favourably with the position in the three other EC Member States who do not compile quarterly National Accounts. These are Belgium (seven months), Greece (ten months) and Luxembourg (nine months). New EC demands and staff losses contributed to the deterioration in publication dates in the late 1980's.
Eight EC Member States (Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Portugal, Spain and the UK) compile quarterly accounts. These countries can use the quarterly results to derive initial quick estimates of annual trends in the principal macro economic aggregates.
The National Statistics Board has set the objective that the CSO should publish the annual National Accounts results in the month of April following the reference year. This is considered the best time schedule that can be achieved using the methods and data systems required to compile annual accounts. It is hoped to achieve this objective gradually over the next few years.
4. Seminar on National Accounts on 17th June, 1992.
The CSO seminar on 17 June 1992 related to the National Accounts. It is not proposed to publish a formal report on the seminar but a copy of the papers which were presented is being placed in the Dáil Library.
This was one of three seminars organised as part of the consultative process undertaken to assist the National Statistics Board establish priorities for their plan for official statistics covering the period 1993 to 1997. The other two seminars related to Demographic Statistics and Labour Market Statistics, respectively.
Invitations to the Seminar were issued to over 200 individuals representing Government Departments, Local Authorities, semi-State bodies, research organisations, the finance and banking sector, economic consultants, representative bodies, the national press and political parties.
The Seminar was well attended and consisted of a series of brief presentations highlighting the main issues of importance to users followed by open discussion. Participants at the Seminar were strongly of the view that the overwhelming priority was to improve the timing and quality of the existing annual National Accounts. A full set of Quarterly Accounts was considered to be a lower order priority which should be developed only after the annual Accounts were compiled according to the required standards. In the meantime, however, participants proposed that CSO should extend the range of the monthly and quarterly indicators and undertake new inquiries to fill remaining gaps such as data on stock changes which currently make it difficult to comprehensively analyse short term economic growth. The development of Regional Accounts was acknowledged to be a very low priority.
5. Consumer Price Index (CPI)
The introduction of a monthly Consumer Price Index is not considered a national statistical priority. A monthly index was proposed by a number of respondents to the general canvass of statistical users conducted by the National Statistics Board for the preparation of its "1993-1997 Strategy for Statistics". However, the Board does not consider this to be a national priority within the resources available for statistics.
Discussions are commencing at EC level on the compilation of harmonised national indices as required under the Maastricht Treaty in the context of European Monetary Union convergence criteria. A special Working Party has been established by the Statistical Office of the EC (Eurostat) for this purpose. The first meeting is scheduled for June.
6. Co-ordination of Statistics Published by Other Departments
The CSO does not have under the Statistics Acts 1926 and 1946 any statutory co-ordinating authority in relation to the publication of statistics by other Government Departments.
A co-ordinating role was proposed for the CSO in the 1985 White Paper "A New Institutional Structure for the Central Statistics Office" in relation to statistical standards and classification used by other Government Departments. However, it was not envisaged that the Office would be given the authority to direct Departments as to what statistics they should publish.
For the preparation of its "1993-1997 Strategy for Statistics" the National Statistics Board took a wide view of national statistics encompassing data available from other Government Departments. The CSO, on the recommendation of the Board, is now contacting these organisations with a view to discussing:
—the statistics they currently compile, whether published or not;
—the possibilities of disseminating further statistics;
—plans for the redesign of computer systems or extensions to administrative systems that could generate further useful statistics;
—statistical aspects (such as coding, classification or sampling) on which the CSO could provide assistance or guidance.
To date discussions have been initiated with the Departments of Education, Energy, Health and Social Welfare.