Present:
Kieran Walsh - Central Statistics Office (CSO)
Paul J. Crowley - Central Statistics Office (CSO)
Olive Loughnane Central Statistics Office (CSO)
Jim Dalton - Central Statistics Office (CSO)
Eoin McCuirc – Central Statistics Office (CSO)
Laura Behan - Department of Transport, Tourism & Sport (DoTTS)
Ken Jordan - Department of Transport, Tourism & Sport (DoTTS)
Vivienne Malone - Department of Transport, Tourism & Sport (DoTTS)
Dr. Sean Lyons - Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI)
Clive Staunton - Coras Iompair Eireann (CIE)
Mary Holland - Sustainable Energy Ireland (SEI)
Frank McCabe – National Transport Authority (NTA)
Owen Shinkwin – National Transport Authority (NTA)
Dr. Brian Caulfield – Trinity College Dublin (TCD)
Sandra Kavanagh – Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)
Helen Hughes – National Roads Authority (NRA),
Feargal Curtin – Irish Marine Development Organisation (IMDO)
Apologies:
David King – Rail Procurement Agency (RPA)
Laura Behan of DoTTS opened the meeting and welcomed all participants. Kieran Walsh of the CSO also welcomed participants to the meeting and emphasised the key role the group has in the coordination of efforts on statistical matters and with regard to information sharing on key projects and developments in the transport sphere.
Paul J Crowley, Head of Transport Statistics, outlined the terms of reference of the group. The meeting was advised of recent changes at management level within CSO transport statistics. Current statistical priorities were explained and it was emphasised that due to limited resources, data needs and requirements had to be prioritised.
Ken Jordan outlined the key priorities from the Department’s statement of strategy for 2011-2014. He welcomed the introduction of the CSO’s Transport Omnibus publication and the National Transport Survey and identified a data gap in relation to statistics on freight transport and congestion.
Kieran Walsh stated that meeting data needs is a multi-stage process. It is important to have an overview of transport policy needs. Existing data sources could also help to satisfy user needs.
Frank McCabe advised that NTA have collected data on congestion in Dublin and this collection is to be extended to the other cities. They are also collecting information on journey time for cities. DoTTS advised that they are carrying out a pilot using Bluetooth.
Jim Dalton gave an overview of the current CSO releases/publications together with the presentation of Statbank as an alternative dissemination tool. The main focus of the presentation was on the future of the CSO Transport Omnibus publication. A number of options regarding the future of the publication were outlined. Comments were invited at the meeting and participants were asked to submit any comments in writing by the 19th October 2013.
Sean Lyons of ESRI gave his perspective as a data user. He primarily uses Statbank but refers to the Omnibus for data not on Statbank. He commented that not all Omnibus users were present in the room. DoTTS took up this point and highlighted the problem of how to reach the non- technical user.
Eoin McCuirc (CSO) illustrated the effectiveness of Statbank as a dissemination tool by the CSO. Statbank can also host data owned by other organisations. Data can be found by users through StatCentral which is the portal to Ireland’s official statistics. In 2012, there were over 1 million web hits on Statbank.
Kieran Walsh highlighted the functionality of Statbank and invited members to consider using it. It is a resource that is provided free of charge and CSO are willing to provide training for data providers. SEI is a Statbank user. Mary Holland advised that it was easy to upload the data using PCAxis.
Helen Hughes (NRA) gave a presentation on traffic monitoring. A discussion on road freight data followed the NRA presentation. A key data gap is the lack of information on the spatial distribution of HGVs. A new EU regulation which will require that HGVs will have to be charged by distance is under discussion. The draft regulation is due to be published in October this year.
Olive Loughnane (CSO) presented information on the NTS including some preliminary results for the 2012 survey. CSO are committed to carrying out the survey as a module to the Quarterly National Household Survey (QNHS) up to and including 2014. CSO will then decide on the most appropriate format and frequency from 2015 onwards based on experiences of the 2013 survey.
NTA who conducted a household travel survey in 2012 asked some questions in relation to the coverage of the NTS, the QNHS sample and the definition of a journey. DoTTS advised that data from the NTS is critical to them and if the current method is not continued post 2014 then an alternative will be necessary. Kieran Walsh indicated that the fact that the NTS was carried out for three consecutive years was an acknowledgement by CSO of the importance of travel statistics. Sean Lyons suggested that the addition of GIS coordinates for QNHS respondents and their employers to the dataset would allow researchers to derive additional information that could be used to better understand travel choices.
Participating organisations provided information on current activities, potential data gaps and data holdings of their organisations. Each organisation was requested to forward this information in writing to the CSO by the 19th October 2013 so that the information could be tabulated and used as a reference point for future discussions on this matter. CSO issued a questionnaire to each organisation to collate this information subsequent to the meeting. The results of the written exercise will be circulated to all participants.
Kieran Walsh outlined details of the ISSCoP which will be launched on 21st November 2013. The purpose of the code of practice is to build a system which gives people confidence on all official statistics and the CSO will launch a logo to identify statistics adhering to this code. Kieran indicated that the ISSCoP could be applied to each statistic in response to an EPA query.
Some discussion took place on the appropriate frequency of meetings going forward. It was generally agreed that 12 months with the possibility of bilateral liaison between organisations as the need arose is appropriate.
Action Points
| Action Point | Responsibility | Due date |
| Comment on format and content of CSO Transport Omnibus publication | Non CSO members of the group | 19th October 2013 |
| Complete CSO questionnaire on current activities, potential data gaps and data holdings | Non CSO members of the group | 19th October 2013 |