CSO need to come clean on inaccurate farm incomes

AS an independent body under the umbrella of the State, the Central Statistics Office is relied upon to produce reliable, unbiased and accurate information.

The credibility of the organisation stands or falls on the credibility of its published information, which is a vital input into the operation of many sectors of state and commercial businesses.

Allegations made during the past week that farm income figures issued by the CSO were calculated on the basis of out-of-date farm input costs have been seriously damaging to the Statistics Office. It is now incumbent on the CSO to provide more information on this issue. What was their source of farm input cost data? When was it last updated? What checks were made to ensure they used ‘real time’ costings for farm inputs in determining farm incomes?