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Memorandum of Understanding between the CSO and Revenue

On 22 July 2009, the Director-General of the Central Statistics Office (CSO), Mr. Gerard O'Hanlon, and the Chairman of the Revenue Commissioners (Revenue), Ms. Josephine Feehily, signed a Memorandum of Understanding covering enhanced data cooperation between the two Offices. The signing took place in Dublin Castle and was attended by a number of senior managers from both Offices.

The Memorandum of Understanding was drawn up against a background of increasing sensitivity across the public service to the administrative burden imposed upon enterprises by Government regulation, and reflects:

• The growing need to maximise the use of administrative data for statistical purposes in order to reduce the overall administrative burden on businesses and generate enhanced statistical outputs in support of evidence-based policy making;
  
• The recommendation from the Business Regulation Forum, in April 2007, that an administrative burden reduction programme should be introduced in Ireland, and the associated work programme which has emerged from the High Level Group on Business Regulation;

• The adoption by Government of a target to reduce the administrative burden of regulations on business by 25% by 2012. (Government decision of March 2008)
  

In accordance with the foregoing conditions and objectives, the CSO is realigning its processes to ensure a more systematic use of statistical data originating in the Office of the Revenue Commissioners. The adoption of the Memorandum of Understanding facilitates this, in particular by:

• Affirming the commitment of the CSO and Revenue to advancing the recommendations of the report Statistical Potential of Administrative Records - An Examination of Data Holdings in the Office of the Revenue Commissioners; and

• Establishing a CSO/Revenue Liaison Group as a formal, high-level mechanism for consultation and communication between the two Offices.

The Memorandum of Understanding acknowledges that enhanced data cooperation between the two Offices, with a view to eliminating or minimising duplication in data submission, has the potential to reduce the administrative burden on business.

The Memorandum of Understanding reaffirms the CSO undertaking that all data received from Revenue are treated as strictly confidential and are used for statistical purposes only, in accordance with the Statistics Act, 1993 and EU statistical law, and also in conformity with the Data Protection Acts. The CSO also acknowledges that Revenue has statistical requirements and agrees, where feasible and in line with the Statistics Act, to meet these requirements by providing statistical analyses of CSO data and other administrative data holdings in the form of non-confidential, aggregate-level data.

› Memorandum of Understanding (PDF 70KB)

CSO-Revenue Memorandum of Understanding signing ceremony, Dublin Castle

Josephine Feehily (Chairman, Revenue Commissioners) and Gerard O'Hanlon (Director General of the CSO)