Dáil Éireann debate -
Wednesday, 24 Nov 1993

Vol. 436 No. 2

Written Answers. - CSO Statistics.

Eamon Walsh

Question:

109 Mr. E. Walsh asked the Minister for Health if, in view of the separate occupations of persons listed in the Central Statistics Office categories of social class, he will give the relationship between death and illness in Ireland and social class; and if he will make a statement on the matter.

Minister for Health (Mr. Howlin)

The question correctly states that the Central Statistics Office records social class in census of population data. However, this data cannot be readily linked with mortality or morbidity data. National morbidity data only exists for certain notifiable conditions, primarily infectious diseases and does not include occupational information. The National Cancer Registry has recently been established to register all cases of cancer. This will include occupational data, but it will be several years before the register is sufficiently complete to allow research in this area.

For mortality, death certificates record socio-economic group rather than social class, but even this limited information is recognised to be of poor quality. The circumstances in which the information is sought are very difficult, and very often the person providing the information does not have an accurate picture of the previous occupation or occupations of the deceased. For these reasons, the Central Statistics Office does not publish information on socio-economic groups in its reports on vital statistics.