asked the Taoiseach the reason the information contained in pages 291-303 of the Irish Statistical Bulletin of September 1979 for various categories of industrial production is no more recent than 1975 and if he considers information of this vintage is of sufficient value to justify the costs involved in its assembly.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Industrial Production.
1.
The statistical information to which the Deputy refers relates to results of the annual census of industrial production covering details of goods manufactured, materials used and so forth. The 12 seqarate industry reports included in the September 1979 Irish Statistical Bulletin complete the set for the 1975 census—reports for that year for 68 other industries were published in previous issues of the bulletin.
The 1976 census returns are being processed at the moment and some industry reports for that census year will be included in the next issue of the bulletin.
Statistical information on current developments in the industrial sector is provided by the monthly index of industrial production for which results up to September 1979 have already been issued while provisional results for the final quarter of 1979 are expected to be available in about one month's time.
The annual census of production results provide valuable detailed information not derivable from the current indicators and it is considered necessary to have both components in the national statistical system. Inevitably there is a substantial time-lag involved for the census figures since completed returns are usually based by firms on their final annual accounts. There is a further time-lag caused by the delay in making the returns to the Central Statistics Office. Regretfully this delay has been increasing in recent years with consequential cumulative delays in the compilation and publication of the census results. Thus even in respect of the 1976 census year about one-fifth of the returns are still outstanding. One factor which may have contributed to this development has been an expansion in the variety of data sought to meet statistical requirements of the EEC.
In July of last year the Central Statistics Office appointed five field officers on an experimental basis to make direct contact with industrial firms and to encourage them to forward statistical returns for annual and short-term inquiries with a minimum of delay. Certain progress has been made and the office is continuing with this direct approach to firms. It will however take some time to make substantial reductions in the time-lag for census results.
It would be of considerable help if firms would complete and return their outstanding census of production forms and enable the Central Statistics Office to produce the aggregate results with a shorter time-lag.