Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 3 February 2021
963. Deputy Carol Nolan asked the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine if Ireland has conducted a census of agriculture in 2020 in line with the integrated farm statistics Regulation (EU) No. 2018/1091; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [5910/21]
View answerThe Census of Agriculture, which was first collected in Ireland in 1847, is carried out every ten years by the Central Statistics Office (CSO), to provide benchmark statistics on the number and structure of farms.
The Census was initially due to have been collected in June 2020 but, as a result of COVID-19 pandemic, this was postponed to September 2020. Almost 140,000 farms received the Census of Agriculture questionnaire by post in the first week of September. All farms were required to complete and return the questionnaire to the CSO by 17th September 2020.
The CSO has confirmed that the returned questionnaires are currently being processed. The Census is carried out as part of an EU-wide Census of Agriculture under Regulation (EU) 2018/1091 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 18th July 2018 on Integrated Farm Statistics. According to the Regulation, Member States shall transmit validated core and module data and a quality report to the Commission (Eurostat) by March 2022. It is expected results of the Census will be available from the CSO shortly after that date.
