Census of Population

Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 4 July 2017

Tuesday, 4 July 2017

Questions (320)

Catherine Murphy

Question:

320. Deputy Catherine Murphy asked the Minister for Arts, Heritage, Regional, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs the consideration which is given to the details of the census of population within her Department; the sections of her Department involved; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [31406/17]

Written answers

Minister for Arts, Heritage, Regional, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs

Population statistics from census reports inform a range of activities within my Department, both formally and informally. Generally, population statistics can assist in the development of policies and schemes in terms of overall guidance while reports and studies using census data might also, on occasion, be of particular relevance to individual projects.

Census data is of particular relevance in those areas listed in the following table:

Language Planning	Use is made of census data relating to the Irish language insofar as it relates to Gaeltacht Language Planning Areas, Gaeltacht Service Towns and Irish Language Networks as defined under the Gaeltacht Act 2012 . This quantitative data is being used as a key indicator in determining how best to support the language in the context of language plans being developed for implementation at community level under the language planning process. In order to facilitate the usage and disseminations of such data, the Department , in co-operation with the CSO has developed a language planning map viewer . This is accessed via the Department’s website and presents, inter alia , Irish language data from Census 2011 for the language planning areas. 2016 Irish language census data will be provided on the map viewer, on publication of this data by the CSO in late July.
CLÁR	CLÁR, and the geographical area of coverage of the scheme, is related to levels of depopulation over a period of time and is based on the census data for 1926 and 2002 i.e. the criteria for the scheme are based on levels of depopulation between those years. It is intended to review the areas of coverage of the scheme later this year when the detailed census data for 2016 is available.
LEADER	Information from the CSO and the census is used in policy decisions impacting on the LEADER programme e.g. in the resource allocation model used for the distribution of LEADER Funds.