Joining up public service information: The rationale for a national data infrastructure

Looking back to 2014, when the paper 'Joining up public service information: The rationale for a national data infrastructure' was first published, it may be difficult to understand how underdeveloped the Irish statistical system was then, compared with the system we enjoy today.From the turn of the twenty-first century, the National Statistics Board (NSB) had recognised and highlighted the need to better organise and maximise the use of administrative data in Ireland.** But it was the financial crisis of 2008/9, that exposed serious gaps in Ireland's data infrastructure and reinforced the efforts of the 133