With your permission, Sir, I propose to take Questions Nos. 1, 2 and 3 together.
The Central Statistics Office has not recently had to cancel or modify, except to a minor extent, any published emigration statistics or statistics relating to the movements of persons in and out of the country.
I have seen a newspaper report which, I understand from the Tánaiste, took some remarks he made during the course of a recent debate out of their context. In reply to an allegation that widely differing figures in relation to emigration had been published over the last few months, the Tánaiste said that the latest information published by the Central Statistics Office could be relied upon—and, incidentally, made the point that when the Office discovers that it has made a miscalculation or an incorrect estimate it does not conceal this fact. In the recently-published Economic Statistics—Budget 1964, for instance, former incorrect estimation of the numbers of persons at work was mentioned and corrected estimates given.
Reliable estimates of net emigration over inter-censal periods may be derived from the periodic censuses of population but, as has been stated in reply to questions in this House on many occasions—the latest being on 11th December last—it is not possible to prepare reliable estimates of emigration for other than inter-censal periods.
Over the last two inter-censal periods, however, the net outward passenger balances by sea and air agreed reasonably closely with the estimates of net emigration derived from the censuses. On the assumption that this concordance applies annually, as it did over recent whole five-year periods, it is possible to use the net outward passenger balances by sea and air as indicators of the trend of annual net emigration. They should continue to be a useful indicator until a change takes place in the relative importance of the balance of movements across the Border, which, over the period 1951-1961, seemed to have been small.
In addition, it has to be borne in mind that, if comparisons from year to year are made between the net outward passenger balances for years ending at periods of peak passenger traffic, great distortions may occur. The Central Statistics Office, consequently, uses the figures for the years ended on the last day of February as indicators of the trend of emigration, February being generally a relatively quiet month for passenger traffic.
In the circumstances, I propose, with your permission, Sir, to circulate in the Official Report a statement showing the net outward passenger balance by sea and air for the years ended on the last day of February, 1958 to 1964.
Following is the statement:
NET outward passenger balance by sea and air for the twelve-monthly periods ended 28-29 February in each year 1958-1964.
Twelve months ended 28-29 Feburary
|
Net outward passenger balance by sea and air
|
|
000's
|
1958
|
59.9
|
1959
|
34.1
|
1960
|
43.6
|
1961
|
43.8
|
1962
|
22.3
|
1963
|
12.2
|
1964
|
25.0
|