Donal Kelly (CSO), Claire Finn (DoT), Aideen Morrissey (DoT), Barbara Curtin (DoT), Olive Loughnane (CSO), Sarah Rose Flynn (DoT), Noreen Dorgan (CSO), Noreen Leahy (CSO), Kieran Riordan (CSO), Gerry Brady (CSO), Clare O’Hara (CSO), Dimitri Cernize (CSO), Damien Fahey (EPA), Philip O’Brien (EPA), Barry Colleary (NTA), John Nott (NTA), Owen Shinkwin (NTA), Sarah Burns (NTA), Vincent McCarthy (NTA), Daniel Fallon Bailey (IMDO), Cathal Masterson (TII), Dan Brennan (TII), Denis Dineen (SEAI), Martin Howley (SEAI), Paul Deane (RSA), Una Ni Eigeartaigh (DOT), Padraig Kenny (ARUP), Paul McElvaney (CSO).
Item 1: Introduction & Welcome
Donal Kelly of CSO welcomed the participants and gave an overview of the agenda. The demand for statistics had increased significantly due to the pandemic. The main purpose of the meeting was to discuss how data is being used, what are the statistical needs, what are the potential overlaps and what potential there is for collaboration.
The group should be able to advise on transport statistics required to support national and regional policy needs. Examine and make recommendations on all quality aspects of transport statistical outputs. Promote best practice in the compilation of transport statistics, investigate alternatives sources of data and provide and share information on issues relating to transport statistics.
The CSO is seeing an increasing demand for more timely data from users . This is can be challenging for the CSO as response rates to traditional surveys are falling and there is a need for access to more administrative data. The CSO has also noted a growing demand for more environmental data and statistics on the impact of climate change. The CSO are constantly on the lookout for new administrative data sources to meet emerging policy needs and the importance of high quality and linkable data sources was highlighted
Claire Finn of DoT thanked the CSO for hosting the meeting noting that was important that the meeting is taking place nine months into the pandemic. There are new demands made on all of us. It is important to look at what pace useful data can be made available. There has been a strong demand for Transport statistics throughout the pandemic.
Item 2 Presentation "Filling Departmental Data Needs during COVID-19" - Barbara Curtin, Statistician, Department of Transport
The group was given an update on the internal COVID-19 dashboard that the Department of Transport (DoT) established during 2020 to inform policy. The dashboard collates aviation and road transport statistics. The Dashboard was initially updated every fortnight but is now updated monthly. Maritime data as not been included on the dashboard due to confidentiality concerns.
Item 3 Developments in CSO Transport Outputs in the COVID-19 Environment - CSO
Olive Loughnane provided an overview of the current statistical outputs from the Transport section in the CSO. Prior to COVID-19, the CSO’s statistical programme was directed towards the requirements of the various European statistical regulations. However, since the onset of the pandemic, there has been a demand for more regular and more timely transport statistics. Consequently, the CSO developed the monthly Transport Bulletin which collates traffic counter data from Transport Infrastructure Ireland (TII), Luas and public service traffic data from the National Transport Authority (NTA), road fatality data from the Road Safety Authority (RSA), vehicle licensing data, bicycle counter data from Dublin City Council, aviation data and fuel excise data. The CSO acknowledged the co-operation and collaboration with many external agencies that facilitated this release, and the importance of administrative data in providing good quality and timely statistics.
Item 4 Organisational updates
The NTA are considering a case study on passenger transport data by mode, operator, time and route. The data can be derived from Leap card and Fare box data. They are hoping to provide aggregate patronage trends in “near real time” and there is also a boarding and alighting estimation tool in development. The new challenges being looked at are travel pattern changes, what effect 3rd level education will have, trip lengths and days of attendance.
The RSA are researching data on road traffic collision with data from the Pulse system. There is a constant demand for more current relevant data. Areas of interest include the increase in road deaths despite the reduction in traffic and the increase in fatalities during summer months. The RSA are also looking at trends in the serious injury data over a period of years.
TII have a large database that is based on traffic counter data from sites all over the country. They have data on the canal cordon, M50 cordon and similar data in Galway but will be expanding to Cork and Waterford. TII data can give distance travelled on motorways national roads and local road network. There is an extensive bank of traffic counters that the TII do provide to EPA along with emission data. They currently have a website set up for individual data on 350 counters on the network. They hope to make this data available in API query format but will be 2021 before this will be done. The challenges facing policy makers are the long-lasting impacts on travel. How to improve road networks in areas particularly remote rural areas.
The EPA stated that air emissions data is available from 1990 to 2019. They have compiled some figures for the first 10 months of 2020. The biggest reduction seems to have been April and May 2020. They are working with the SEAI to meet needs of users and hope to publish some data by end of year. They also have research projects ongoing and have produced a short EPA report on their website. How to measure and develop better indicators is an ongoing issue.
Item 5 Transport statistics, an environmental perspective - CSO
Item 5 Transport statistics, an environmental perspective - CSOClare O’Hara (CSO) gave an overview of current and future work being carried out.
Current releases include annual air emissions accounts and annual environment taxes (energy, transport and resource/pollution) release. There is also a new annual release on transport and non-transport fossil fuel subsidies. The CSO also produces a fuel excise clearance release which gives monthly statistical data based on Revenue data. It includes road transport fuel volumes, and this release has clearly shown the effect of COVID-19 on transport levels. A CSO business energy use survey also highlights the data gaps that exist, particularly on marine and inland waterways fuel use. The CSO is interested in getting data on electric vehicle charging points and, in the future, may look at emissions and electric/hybrid vehicle test data.
SEAI stated that 2020 was a key year for emissions and targets because of the context of the pandemic. There is data on electricity and gas available monthly.
Item 6 Transport Data Hub – TII/Arup
Padraig Kenny (ARUP) gave a presentation on a funding proposal from the TII to create a central Transport Data Hub for Irish transport data. This infrastructure would collate and host data from across the transport sector and make it more readily available to researchers and analysts.
Item 7 AOB & Conclusion
Donal Kelly closed the meeting by thanking the contributors for a very worthwhile meeting and noting the growing importance of transport statistics for policy and planning. While the pandemic has brought a particular focus to transport data, the longer-term importance of transport data to environmental and climate change policy is very clear. Donal highlighted the benefits of administrative data to official statistics and maximising the value of existing data sources through data linking and sharing. Donal expressed the willingness of the CSO to engage with other agencies on statistical projects. At the end of the meeting the group were invited to consider future meetings of the Transport Statistics Liaison Group and to propose potential topics of interest to be presented to the group. Donal thanked all the attendees for their participation in the meeting and stated that it would be useful to hold these meetings on an annual basis. The next meeting date is scheduled for late 2021/early 2022.