Border People User Group (1) - A better understanding of cross-border mobility statistics
2 June 2009
Armagh City Hotel
At the last User Group meeting held in May 2008, part of the first phase of the Border People, User Group members helped to influence the nature, scope and effectiveness of the website and provided advice on information needs and possible future developments.
One of the main issues for future development highlighted at that meeting was the need to address the lack of accurate, up-to-date data about the extent of cross-border mobility.
From the summary of comments made at the event,
...we still do not have any better statistics on the exact numbers of people mobile across the Irish border. The currently cited statistics of approximately 18,000 workers (9,000 in each direction), 5,200 students and 4,000 migrants crossing the border to work or study each year are estimates developed in 2001 during the preparation of the North/South Ministerial Council Obstacles to Mobility Study. This lack of an accurate, in-depth understanding on cross-border mobility groups within the island is considered by the User Group to be the “major missing element in the overall picture”
To further explore this issue the first User Group meeting of the second Phase of Border People, Steve MacFeely, Director of Business Statistics from CSO will gave a presentation "Cross-border measurement - challenges and developments" and Fiona Johnston, Assistant Statistician from NISRA (Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency) talked about "Northern Ireland Small Area Statistics".
See the presentations by Steve MacFeely [456KB], Fiona Johnston [9MB]and the introduction to Border People [830KB].
An informal workshop discussion followed the presentations to discuss the implcations in more detail.
To capture an idea of the User Group's opinion of Border People an electronic voting sesion was incorporated into the meeting. You can see the results 
[119 KB] of that voting session.
Attendees at the User Group on 2 June 2009 were:-
| NAME / POSITION / ORGANISATION |
|---|
| Paul Cunningham, Assistant Principal, EU International Section, Department of Social and Family Affairs |
| Josette Cuthbert, Regional Manager, Citizens Information Board |
| Pat Donaghy, Deputy Joint Secretary, North/South Ministerial Council |
| Eimear Donnelly, Project Administrator, Centre for Cross Border Studies |
| Marie Hayes, Development Manager, County Louth Citizen Information Service |
| Paul Herink, Director of Information Services, Citizens Advice Bureau Northern Ireland |
| Niall Holohan, Deputy Joint Secretary, North/South Ministerial Council |
| Dette Hughes, Programme Manager, East Border Region Committee |
| Allison Irvine, ICT Officer, Cooperation and Working Together |
| Fiona Johnston, Assistant Statistician, Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency NISRA |
| Steve MacFeely, Director of Business Statistics, Central Statistics Office CSO |
| Kieran Mathers, Tradelinks Programme Manager, Newry & Mourne Enterprise Agency |
| Stephen McGrath, Senior Account Executive, Weber Shankwick |
| Gary McIntyre, Advice & Information Worker, Borderwise |
| Lynda Monteith, Corporate Director, Irish Central Border Area Network |
| Carolyne Murphy, EU Programmes, Officer Co-operation Ireland |
| Paula O'Dwyer, Executive, IBEC-CBI Joint Business Council |
| Annmarie O'Kane, Information Officer, Centre for Cross Border Studies |
| Andy Pollak, Director, Centre for Cross Border Studies |
| Zoe Robinson, Media Manager, INC Marketing |
| Joe Shiels, ICT Manager, Centre for Cross Border Studies |
For further details contact Joe Shiels at j.shiels@qub.ac.uk or call +44 (0)28 3751 5291
