asked the Taoiseach (a) the number of the 3,180 enumerators recruited by the Central Statistics Office for the current census, who already have other employment, or, being married, are supported by their spouses; (b) the number so recruited who were known by the Central Statistics Office to have no other employment; (c) whether any instruction was given to the Central Statistics Office in their recruitment to prefer, other things being equal, persons registered as unemployed; (d) whether the 3,180 positions as temporary enumerators were advertised; (e) if not, by what method of selection these positions were filled; and (f) whether vacancies for these positions were notified to local employment exchanges.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Census Enumerators.
1.
The actual procedure followed by the Central Statistics Office in recruiting part-time enumerators was as follows:
(1) The positions were widely and frequently advertised in the national and local press over a three-week period at the end of November and at the beginning of December 1978. They were notified to each National Manpower office and local employment office and advertised therein. Posters were also exhibited in post offices and Garda stations and application forms were also available in these centres. Managers of local employment offices were instructed by the Department of Social Welfare to examine their list of registrants, to draw the attention of suitable persons to the vacancies and to advise them to apply.
(2) All completed application forms received were considered and persons who on the basis of the completed form seemed to be suitable for the requirements of the job and to possess the essential qualifications set out on the form were called for interview. The total number of applications received was 12,200. The total number of persons interviewed was 8,400.
(3) Interviews were held at some 100 separate centres where candidates were assessed for suitability. Preference was given to unemployed or otherwise genuinely needy persons and such candidates who were considered suitable were offered appointments on a priority basis provided that in a rural area a candidate had a current full driving licence and had the use of a motor vehicle for the duration of the enumeration.
From the records available it would appear that the number of persons appointed to the 3,080 enumerator posts following the procedure outlined comprised 1,120 who had full-time employment, 288 who had some part-time employment and 1,672 who had no other employment. Of the final figure quoted some 1,045 were married and on home duties.
There were in addition 100 postmen recruited as enumerators in the Dublin area by means of a special competition confined to postmen. This arrangement was made in view of the involvement of postmen in previous censuses in Dublin.
I thank the Minister of State for such a painstaking reply and I accept the facts which he has given to the House, but have the Central Statistics Office done anything to satisfy themselves that the instruction given to prefer people known to be registered as unemployed was obeyed? If so, how can he explain the fact that only about one in 16 of the people taken on was registered as unemployed?
The Central Statistics Office have not exhausted the inquiry into this because at the moment they are at the height of the census collection procedure. Sunday was census day and on the lead-up to that and immediately afterwards it was not feasible to undertake a more detailed analysis. Roughly 800 people classifed as unemployed were interviewed. The Deputy talks about one in 16, but we are talking about one in four.
Would the Minister of State not think it strange that out of 12,200 applicants we end up with only 196 persons who were formerly registered as unemployed? Surely that argument on the part of some office for which the Minister of State or one of his colleagues is responsible is an absolutely neglectful approach towards job creation, a thing which is supposed to be their main preoccupation.
I do not accept that it is a neglectful approach. I confess that I would have hoped that more people would have been taken from the unemployment register, but, on the other hand a number of those applicants would have been disqualified bearing in mind that in about half the areas, the rural areas, one would need a driving licence and the use of a car. What really disappointed me when I got the figures that I have was the fact that so few of the people registered as unemployed applied for this post.
Is it not a fantastic situation that when the last Government in office postponed the 1976 census they were castigated heavily for missing an opportunity of handing out 3,000 jobs to people who needed them. Is it not fantastic to find that now 1,220 persons have been taken on as census enumerators who already have full-time jobs?
Question No. 2.
(Cavan-Monaghan): Could the Minister explain why it was considered that a full driving licence in a rural area was a necessity? Was it not obvious that that would exclude——
We cannot go into all the qualifications of the people appointed. This is a new facet to the question.
(Cavan-Monaghan): It is not, Sir.
We cannot go into all the qualifications of every person.
(Cavan-Monaghan): If the Chair would bear with me for a moment—the Minister has spoken, not once but twice about a full driving licence. I am putting it to the Minister that that qualification would automatically exclude a great number of people who could do the job very well, with the co-operation of their households, on foot or with a bicycle?
I do not accept what the Deputy says. The Deputy said that it was the second time I had said this.
(Cavan-Monaghan): The Minister said it twice today.
On the last occasion I said it Deputy Kelly reminded me—and it is on the record—that most rural dole drawers have cars; that is what Deputy Kelly knows about it. Also on the last occasion Deputy Kelly said that we had changed their format in relation to the taking of a census and asked why we were not following the pattern they had established. Well, we are not because they did not hold a census.
(Cavan-Monaghan): Is the Minister not ashamed that most of the people who have got these jobs are well-heeled married women?
It is all right for the Deputy to say that. As I have said already, the problem is that it involves only 800 people who are unemployed. One of the reasons advanced to me in this regard is that the amount of money, a little over £200, for what could be the months of March and April constituted under-payment and that that was why a number of those people who are unemployed did not seek the job.
One last question: was the Employment Action Team consulted about the method of recruiting these 3,000 persons? Did the Employment Action Team earn their keep in respect of the 3,000 jobs we are talking about? This is a farce. They care nothing about employment or anything else; employment my eye.
Were persons registered at labour exchanges as unemployed offered these positions?
My original answer, had the Deputy been listening, said yes; they were notified; posters were up in the employment exchanges.
Under the regulations people who are registered as unemployed, if offered these positions by the labour exchanges—and in the event of their not accepting them—would automatically be disqualified for six weeks from drawing unemployment benefit.
The Minister seems to have answered that in his original answer.
No, the Minister did not. I am now asking the Minister: were the labour exchanges notified that these jobs were available and did they offer them to people who were registered with the labour exchanges as being unemployed?
The positions were notified to each manpower office and each local employment exchange, and all of the people who were calling would have been notified in that way.
No, under the regulations, if these people were offered the jobs and refused to take them they would automatically be disqualified. Could the Minister tell me how many people were disqualified because they did not take up these positions offered to them?
Nobody, because it is not the normal run of job and the Deputy ought to know that.
What I am inclined to believe is that one of the qualifications was a cumann card.
Question No. 2.