About ISSDA

The establishment, within the auspices of the Geary Institute (formerly the Institute for the Study of Social Change), of the Irish Social Science Data Archive (ISSDA), fills a long recognised need in Ireland. ISSDA holds an ever-increasing quantity of machine-readable data from surveys and official statistics (such as the Census) and makes them readily available to users in the academic, public and commercial sectors. 

ISSDA operates with the collaboration and support of the Economic and Social Research institute and the Central Statistics Office.

ISSDA is a member of CESSDA - the Council of European Social Science Data Archives - and IASSIST - International Association for Social Science Information Service & Technology.

Aims

• To ensure wider access to datasets, both Irish and international; 
• To encourage secondary analysis of older data in order to track trends over time; 
• To offer training and advice in the access and exploitation of available datasets; 
• Through links with equivalent archives in other countries, to advance the promotion of much-needed international comparative studies of the Irish economy and Irish society;
• To make datasets available for analysis by postgraduate, and in the longer term, undergraduate students, to facilitate the wider acquisition of data analysis skills.

Data 

As the Archive grows and develops, it is envisaged that it will contain an ever-expanding range of datasets of use to the Irish social science research community. These will include:

• CSO datasets, such as the Small Area Census Data (SAPS), the Household Budget Survey, and the Quarterly National Household Survey; 
• ESRI datasets, such as the School Leavers Survey; 
• Data from the National Election Study
• International comparative datasets, such as the Eurobarometer and ISSP series. 

Data will be distributed both on CD-ROM and via the Internet, and ISSDA is committed to investigating and deploying new technologies such as NESSTAR to ensure the safest and most efficient dissemination of data in the future.