asked the Taoiseach if he will state whether any system has yet been devised whereby it is possible to check with accuracy the annual emigration figures.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Emigration Statistics.
As has been indicated in previous replies to similar questions, it has not been found possible to devise means other than the imposition of rigid frontier controls or the taking of an annual census of population to obtain reliable estimates of annual emigration. The Majority Report of the Commission on Emigration and Other Population Problems does not approve the adoption of either expedient and instead recommends that a census of population should be taken every five years. This recommendation is at present under consideration.
Is the Taoiseach aware that the belief exists in the public mind, whether rightly or wrongly, that no Government is really anxious to have available an accurate check for fear of the embarrassing results that would accrue?
I am not aware of anything of the sort.
Will the Taoiseach ensure that that belief is removed from the public mind by making every effort to see that we will have reliable figures with regard to emigration?
So far as it can be achieved at all with the available machinery.
A suggestion was made some years ago that the Taoiseach's Department was exploring every avenue in order to ensure we would have accurate figures.
I am sure nobody used that expression while I was Taoiseach; neither did we say we would leave no avenues unexplored or stones unturned.