The need for reliable intelligence to support public health policy and action is highlighted in the health research strategies and the health and public health strategies of both Ireland and Northern Ireland. 

Around the world, population health observatories have developed to help meet growing information requirements. They develop according to local, regional and national needs and circumstances, and there is no universal model of what a population health observatory does or how it goes about its work. 

Following earlier work, the Institute of Public Health in Ireland was asked to develop a number of web-based tools for an all-Ireland observatory, and to explore how the population health observatory function might be developed on the island. A broad-based Advisory Group was established to oversee this work, and this chapter gives some background to its work.