asked the Taoiseach if the questionnaire on the forthcoming census forms will be altered to take account of the variety of types of third level education now available.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Census Forms.
1.
The 1979 census will be a limited one carried out primarily in order to provide an up-to-date population count for the use of the proposed Electoral Commission. The questions asked will be limited to basic demographic characteristics, such as age and sex.
Am I to understand that there will be no question of educational levels in the 1979 census?
That is so.
Is the Minister of State satisfied with the situation that this is the first opportunity we have had for some time—and one for which the previous Government may have been at fault—and we are simply not going to know the educational levels achieved by the majority of the population?
We had a ten-year census. The next overall general census which will collect all that type of information—a comprehensive census— is due in 1981. At that stage all those questions will be asked. The census proposed for 1979 is arranged to make up for the disaster in not having the mid-decade census a few years ago.
Is the House to take it that the 1979 census will not contain any of the usual information of an economic kind, the absence of which was so bitterly deplored from the Fianna Fáil benches when the last census was cancelled?
To be of any value the census should be done on a five-yearly basis.
Will the Minister for Economic Planning and Development stand over a census like that?
Yes.
This is to make up for the loss the nation sustained by not having the census in the mid-term. Arrangements are going ahead for the comprehensive census due in 1981.
(Interruptions.)
Will the Minister of State please answer my question which was whether he will commit the Government to a census in 1981?
I am surprised that Deputy Horgan should be so surprised. The Minister for the Environment replied to a question by Deputy Quinn last week. He indicated that the coverage of the 1979 census will be limited to basic demographic characteristics, such as age and sex.
I did not ask about the 1981 census.
(Interruptions.)
Deputy Kelly, the last supplementary.
This is a very important matter and I wish you would not put a rein on me. I want to ask a couple more questions.
I would ask Deputy Kelly not to make speeches when asking questions.
Will this census be a simple skull count for the purpose of the electoral revision? Will it have any other purpose? If so, why is it being delayed for another 12 months?
That is a separate question.
In the 1979 census the questions asked will be limited to basic demographic characteristics, such as age and sex.
Why then——
I am calling the next question.
It cannot be organised earlier and the Deputy knows that.
I realise that a complicated census form cannot be organised earlier but a simple form could be prepared at a month's notice.
The Deputy's party had the opportunity to do that but they did not.
I am calling the next question.
(Interruptions.)
Would Deputy Kelly allow Question Time to proceed?
2.
asked the Taoiseach the number of census forms in the 1971 census that were completed in Irish; and the proportion of the total number of forms which they comprised.
The information requested by the Deputy is not available.
Will the Minister of State ask the Central Statistics Office to make sure that this information will be available in respect of the 1979 census?
I propose to ask that, particularly in relation to the 1981 census.
Why not in relation to the 1979 census?
If we are talking about age, whether it is in Irish or English, it is very difficult to differentiate——
Would the Minister of State not agree that the number of forms applied for in Irish might help to give our educational and other planners some kind of index to the strength of support for the language in the country as a whole?
I am surprised by what the Deputy is saying because in the 1971 census form, both Irish and English were used. There was no question of applying for one or the other.
Apparently there was no information in the CSO on the number of forms completed in Irish, as opposed to those completed in English.
That is what I said. In my view this is something of which a record should have been kept.
Are those forms still available? If so, would the Minister of State make them available to a researcher who might like to calculate the figures?
At this stage that would not be a worth-while exercise.