Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 8 June 2016
624. Deputy Peadar Tóibín asked the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport if he is satisfied with the level of data that is collected on the issues which come under his Department's remit; the steps he will take to work with the administration in Northern Ireland to collect data under his aegis on a North-South basis; and the budgets he will put in place to undertake this work (details supplied). [14449/16]
View answerThe Economic and Financial Evaluation Unit (EFEU) of my Department is currently conducting a review of data in the Department. This is assessing, on a sector-by-sector basis, the extent to which data availability, quality, use, and management in the Department is sufficient to deliver the Department's policy priorities and objectives. The outcome of this will be a DTTaS Data Strategy, to be published later this year. This will summarise the assessment, identify any areas for improvement, and set out an action plan to maintain and improve data availability and use in the Department.
Currently the Central Statistics Office (CSO) publish a number of Tourism related releases, including the Overseas Travel release (information on the number of overseas trips (inbound and outbound), the Tourism and Travel release, (information on expenditure, purpose of visit and overnight stays) and the Household Travel Survey (information on Irish households' travel and tourism (both at home and overseas)).
In addition, Tourism Ireland, the agency with responsibility for the marketing of the island of Ireland as a holiday destination overseas, produces annual all-island tourism statistics using information provided by the CSO and the Northern Ireland agencies, www.tourismireland.com/Research/Visitor-Facts-Figures. There is also an all-island tourism statistics liaison group that meets on a regular basis with representatives from Tourism Ireland, the Department for the Economy, Tourism Northern Ireland, Fáilte Ireland and the Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport.
Sport Ireland also collects various data from all National Governing Bodies (NGBs), including all-island NGBs, as part of the funding process, regarding, for example, membership figures and budgets.
