Since its establishment as a specialist national statistical agency in 1949 the CSO has pursued the same mandate, as set out in the Statistics Act 1993: "The collection, compilation, extraction and dissemination for statistical purposes of information relating to economic, social and general activities and conditions in the State" It is also responsible for co-ordinating official statistics of other public authorities and for developing the statistical potential of administrative records. The Office exists primarily to meet the needs of Government for quality statistical information which is a vital input to the formation, implementation and monitoring of policy and programmes at national, regional and local levels in a rapidly changing economic and social environment.