May 2021
Interview with Mark Warren (OGCIO) on the Public Service Data Catalogue and Ireland’s Data Strategy
In 2019, Ireland published an ambitious and comprehensive Public Service Data Strategy for 2019-2023. The Office of the Government Chief Information Officer (OGCIO) has the leadership role for the digital and data agenda across Government in Ireland.
Supporting this vision, we at Derilinx worked with the OGCIO on the development of the Public Service Open Data Portal – Ireland’s Data Catalogue.
Pierre Baviera, CEO at Derilinx, talked with Mark Warren, Assistant Principal at OGCIO, about the Data Catalogue and the wider perspective around Data Strategy linked to Public Services in Ireland.
Watch this interview to hear about the drivers and the pillars of Ireland’s Open Data Strategy, the benefits of using the Data Catalogue for Public Sector Bodies, Local Authorities, citizens and businesses, and what’s the plan for the future.
As a Public Sector Body you should know what data you have in your organisation, you should know its purpose, you should know its scope, you should know where it is, who controls it, what it contains and what it is used for.
Mark Warren, Assistant Principal, OGCIO
If you are a public body you can also look and see what data other public bodies have and find out that maybe there is data in education, or transport, or welfare or Cork City Council, that we can potentially reuse to make our public services better, more streamline, for the benefits of citizens and businesses.
Mark Warren, Assistant Principal, OGCIO
About Ireland’s Data Catalogue
The Public Service Data Catalogue provides high level information on over 1,200 key datasets across almost 100 public bodies in the Public Service (both numbers of datasets and publishers are growing every month). It catalogues key data held by these public bodies, including personal data, business data, and data critical to business decisions or service delivery. The Catalogue provides citizens with a simple plain English descriptive information about datasets including their purpose, their coverage and whether they includes any personal or sensitive personal data. It aims to promote awareness, openness and transparency around data held by the Public Service and is among a series of measures that Government are introducing through the Public Service Data Strategy that aim to create a more joined-up, efficient and transparent public service.
The Catalogue is designed to help people find and understand what data the public service holds, why it holds that data and what it is used for – across Public Service. That will provide benefits to both citizens, private sector and public service. The public will benefit from greater transparency and openness around data, citizens and business will be empowered with knowledge of how their data is utilised. The Public Service will also benefit through the fostering of innovation and reform around data, as public bodies discover and re-use data they were previously unaware of.
As Public Service Bodies (PSBs) increasingly collect, store and process large volumes of data in order to deliver public services, there is a growing need to catalogue this data. The Public Service Data Catalogue enables PSBs to describe their data holdings, providing information on their datasets including details such as the dataset’s scope and purpose.