Irelande

Eurostat collects road transport statistics by two means: 1. Data on infrastructure, transport equipment, enterprises, economic performance, employment, traffic, aggregated data on transport of passengers and goods as well as data on accidents are collected using the Common Questionnaire of the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE), Eurostat and the International Transport Forum (ITF, in the framework of OECD). The method of the Common Questionnaire data collection is presented in a separate document. 2. Data on carriage of goods by road, using heavy goods vehicles, are based on a continuum of legal acts: 2.1 Data collection on carriage of goods by road until 1998 (included) was based on Directives 78/546/EEC and 89/462/EEC and covered tonnes and tonne-kilometres only. 2.2 Data since the reference period 1999 are derived from micro-data collected in the framework of Regulation (EU) No 70/2012 of the European parliament and of the council on statistical returns in respect of the carriage of goods by road, a recast of Council Regulation (EC) 1172/98 which has replaced the previous Directives. The figures are aggregated on the basis of sample surveys carried out by the reporting countries. The data cover tonnes, tonne-kilometres, vehicle-kilometres and numbers of journeys. These metadata pages only refer to road freight statistics based on the European Union's legal acts (point 2 above) and, in particular, to the data for reference years 1999 and after (2.2).

Eurostat collects road transport statistics by two means: 1. Data on infrastructure, transport equipment, enterprises, economic performance, employment, traffic, aggregated data on transport of passengers and goods as well as data on accidents are collected using the Common Questionnaire of the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE), Eurostat and the International Transport Forum (ITF, in the framework of OECD). The method of the Common Questionnaire data collection is presented in a separate document. 2. Data on carriage of goods by road, using heavy goods vehicles, are based on a continuum of legal acts: 2.1 Data collection on carriage of goods by road until 1998 (included) was based on Directives 78/546/EEC and 89/462/EEC and covered tonnes and tonne-kilometres only. 2.2 Data since the reference period 1999 are derived from micro-data collected in the framework of Regulation (EU) No 70/2012 of the European parliament and of the council on statistical returns in respect of the carriage of goods by road, a recast ofCouncil Regulation (EC) 1172/98 which has replaced the previous Directives. The figures are aggregated on the basis of sample surveys carried out by the reporting countries. The data cover tonnes, tonne-kilometres, vehicle-kilometres and numbers of journeys. These metadata pages only refer to road freight statistics based on the European Union's legal acts (point 2 above) and, in particular, to the data for reference years 1999 and after (2.2).

The lack of common definitions and practices to measure transport infrastructure spending hinders comparisons between countries and spending options. Data for road and rail infrastructure are the most comprehensive while data on sea port and airport spending are less detailed in coverage and definition. While our survey covers all sources of financing a number of countries exclude private spending, including Japan and India. Around 65% of countries report data on urban spending while for the remaining countries data on spending in this area are missing. Indicators such as the share of GDP needed for investment in transport infrastructure, depend on a number of factors, such as the quality and age of existing infrastructure, maturity of the transport system, geography of the country and transport-intensity of its productive sector. Caution is therefore required when comparing investment data between countries. However, data for individual countries and country groups are consistent over time and useful for identifying underlying trends and changes in levels of spending, especially for inland transport infrastructure. These issues of definitions and methods are addressed in a companion report Understanding the Value of Transport Infrastructure – Guidelines for macro-level measurement of spending and assets (ITF/OECD2013) that aims to improve the international collection of related statistics.