Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 8 June 2016
101. Deputy Peadar Tóibín asked the Tánaiste and Minister for Justice and Equality if she is satisfied with the level of data that is collected on the issues which come under her Department's remit; the steps she will take to work with the administration in Northern Ireland to collect data under her aegis on a North-South basis; and the budgets she will put in place to undertake this work (details supplied). [14445/16]
View answerAs part of its Programme for Change, my Department is further developing its capacity to collect and use data to support medium and longer term evidence-based policy formulation and implementation across all of its remit. There is already a wide range of data available to the Department with significant quantities in the public domain. While much of the data is currently collected by individual organisations as part of their remit, my Department is developing proposals to add value by drawing the data together to improve delivery of services and to support end-to-end views of systems. Several agencies of my Department already cooperate closely with their counterparts in Northern Ireland and this will continue and grow as our data analysis capacity increases. My Department is also in dialogue with the third level research community and other relevant actors with a view to developing a research programme.
