What We Do

The Data and Analytics Unit (DAU) and the Research and Evaluation Unit (REU) aim to enhance the lives of children, young people, families and communities through supporting research and evidence-based policy development in the Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth (DCEDIY).

This is achieved by:

• supporting the use and application of research within the department
• promoting evidence-based policy development and service delivery through the translation and application of knowledge
• providing data, analytics and statistical information to improve policy planning, policy monitoring and policy formulation. This includes monitoring and managing targets; and helping understand why targets may be on/off track
• developing and delivering a programme of evaluation of the impact of the policies and services of the department
• supporting the work of the department and its stakeholders through expertise in data management, and through the development of a statistical database to assist planning, policy formulation and monitoring and managing targets. This helps us understand why targets may be on/off track
• sponsoring “Growing Up in Ireland” the national longitudinal study of children and young people.

To get in touch, please email us at dataandanalytics@equality.gov.ie or research@equality.gov.ie

Care Experiences; Journeys through the Irish Care System, is a research and data project examining the lives of children in care, and adults who were in care as children. The Project commenced in response to the Ryan Report (2009) recommendation to implement longitudinal research to follow young people leaving care and transitioning to adulthood. The aim of the Project is to create new knowledge and evidence about how care is experienced in Ireland and to use that knowledge and evidence to inform policy development in this area.

The project is led by DCEDIY, in collaboration with Tusla as a key partner, and a number of governance and advisory structures have been established. These include cross-departmental and public body officials, stakeholders and care experienced adults.

The project consists of four inter-related elements:

1. Development of the capacity of the Tusla Case Management: Child Protection, Alternative Care (TCM CPAC) system to dynamically track the individual pathways of children in care

2. A cross-sectional study of young people who left care 10 years ago

3. A longitudinal study of children in care over a 10-year period, commencing when they are aged 16 years

4. Bespoke studies about children in care and aftercare to provide timely knowledge about their circumstances.

View more information about the Care Experiences Project here

In the EiPP team, we help staff across DCEDIY so that they have relevant and recent evidence to inform their policy making and decision making. We have several ways to do this, from being a sounding board to giving advice on conducting research, to commissioning and managing external contractors. We also can conduct research to meet the policy needs of the department.

Our guiding principle is that the research help we offer should be:

• Timely and Comprehensive
• Accessible and Usable
• Innovative and Helpful

For more information please see Recent Research.

The Research and Evaluation Unit, as the representative of the Irish Government Economic and Evaluation Service (IGEES) within DCEDIY, is responsible for conducting evaluation projects in policy areas across the Department.

The REU Evaluation team’s projects include Focused Policy Assessments, Spending Reviews, and a range of internal policy and programme evaluations. The team also provide technical and evaluation inputs to policymakers across the DCEDIY.

The evaluation team have developed high-level evaluation resources for DCEDIY policymakers, which can be found in the evaluation publications section on Our Publications page.

Strategic Research is a programme of proactive and longer term research initiatives and developments. This includes Growing Up in Ireland, the national longitudinal study of children, as well as the development of a cross government programme of research on children and young people, and support to a multi-dimensional DCEDIY research and data project on children in care and adults who were in care as children.

Growing Up in Ireland (GUI) is the national longitudinal study of children and young people, and the flagship research project of DCEDIY, managed in association with the Central Statistics Office. Growing Up in Ireland represents a very significant investment by the State in high quality research and data on the lives of children, young people and their families. The aim of this longitudinal study is to examine the factors which support or undermine the well-being of children and young people, in order to inform effective and responsive policy making and service development.

Since 2008, GUI has collected data from two large cohorts:

• Cohort ’08 (formerly the Infant Cohort), born in 2008 and surveyed at the ages of 9 months, 3 years, 5 years, 7 years, 9 years and 13 years. These participants are now coming up to 15 years old and will be surveyed again at the age of 17; and
• Cohort ’98 (formerly the Child Cohort) born in 1998, and surveyed at the age of 9 years, 13 years, 17 years and 20 years. They are now 24 years old and will be surveyed again in 2023/2024 at the age of 25.

Both cohorts also took part in a short UI Covid-19 survey in 2020, which collected information on the impact of Covid restrictions on the lives of both cohorts at the ages of 12 and 22.

View a list of all publications related to GUI data.

To apply to access the GUI data, see AMF or RMF

Find out more.

The purpose of the DAU is to provide statistical, data and analytic support to aid planning, monitoring and policy formulation across the department. We collect data from a number of sources to provide a set of indicators, relating to the wellbeing of children, young people, families and the communities we serve. These indicators help us track and measure progress in relation to these groups which informs policy and decision making. We also produce Statistical Spotlight reports on particular cohorts (e.g. children under 12 years of age) or on particular topics (e.g. Positive gender norms in Ireland).

In the DAU team, we are responsible for:

• Provision of data and statistical advice/support/guidance e.g. EU Survey
• Supporting the work of the department by providing data and indicators to improve policy planning, policy monitoring and policy formulation. This includes monitoring and managing targets; and helping understand why targets may be on/off track
• building the capacity of staff in the department to use data to inform their policy work and to make decisions
• giving staff in the department access to relevant and up-to-date data and promoting its use
• strategic foresight analysis – Geo-Spatial data, modelling, SWITCH
• A scoping review documenting best international practice in linking administrative data to longitudinal studies of children

Our reports are available on Our Publications page. These include Statistical Spotlights, the State of the Nation's Children (SONC) reports, and data for Young Ireland, the national policy framework for children and young people 2023–2028.

The DAU also have a particular focus on data to support and assist the department's response to the situation in Ukraine and are responsible for:

• running the supply and demand of accommodation capacity model
• oversight of the Humanitarian Senior Officials Group GeoHive
• provision of key data to both internal and external partners

The Knowledge Transfer team is responsible for making research knowledge and information easy to access, and promoting its use in DCEDIY. We help to make sure that the work of DCEDIY and the REU has impact and that it is used to make better policies.

Responsibilities include events coordination, facilitating staff access to evidence and library resources and managing REU’s dissemination and outreach strategy.