CSO’s suppression of certain data a 'serious' barrier to understanding Ireland’s economy
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Leading economists have told of their frustration that the practice of suppressing some official statistics is getting in the way of understanding the economy.
ESRI research professor Kieran McQuinn and senior economist Jim Power have told the that the continuing policy of the Central Statistics Office (CSO) in suppressing detailed industrial output data on the grounds of confidentiality is a barrier to their making analyses on productivity across the economy. It could also potentially hinder understanding the flows of corporation tax receipts into the Exchequer, they warn.
Mr McQuinn said the lack of detailed data makes it harder to "benchmark" the Irish economy against other economies, and that "redacting information" makes it more difficult to understand what is going on the underlying economy. Assessing the potential vulnerability should a number of multinationals exit Ireland requires detailed information, he said.
Mr Power said that suppressing detailed figures in industrial sectors across the economy is "a serious" barrier to digging down into detail.
"We do not know what is going on at a detailed level in manufacturing. It is extremely frustrating," he said. "If you do not have proper data, which we don't in the manufacturing sector, how can you pursue effective policy for the long term?"
An analysis by the shows that the CSO cites "confidentiality reasons" for suppressing details on six of the 27 sectors of the economy in its industrial production releases. The sectors — beverages, chemicals, pharma products, computer products, machinery, and mining and quarrying — appear to be dominated for the most part by large foreign-owned companies.
The details on the six sectors are reported on an aggregate basis in the headline figures. The CSO said it is obliged to suppress data for confidentiality reasons to protect the identities of individual companies by law under the 1994 Statistics Act, and that the headline or aggregate figures across all sectors is published.
"Therefore, the CSO may have to apply a confidential designation to certain detail, or limit the level of detail that can be disclosed, to comply with this requirement," the CSO said in a statement. "Failure to protect the confidentiality of the data would not just be a breach of national and EU law, it would also be a breach of the trust placed in the CSO by respondents," it said.
The CSO told the it has not applied any new confidentiality designations in recent years and has not been subject to "request or influence" from companies or business groups on the matter.
"The CSO’s independence is enshrined in law through the Statistics Act and decisions in respect of all statistical matters — such as designations of confidentiality — are solely a matter for the CSO and not subject to external request or influence," it said.
"The Statistics Act is in line with current European legislation on statistical matters. The CSO is satisfied that it has balanced its legislative mandate to provide statistical insight with its responsibility to protect the confidentiality of the information provided to it," it said.