asked the Taoiseach (a) if there is any precedent for the taking of a limited census merely for the purposes of Dáil constituency revision; (b) if he will estimate the cost of taking such a census compared with the cost of taking a normal complete census; (c) why, in view of the limited nature of the proposed census, it should be necessary to defer its taking until a date approximately 18 months after the intention to take it was first announced by him; (d) how long it will take after the census date to publish the figures resulting from the census; and (e) if a normal complete census were taken, if it would not be possible within the same time to extract and publish the figures relevant to the purposes of constituency revision.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Census of Population.
1.
The information requested by the Deputy is as follows:
(a) There is no precedent for the taking of a limited census merely for the purposes of Dáil constituency revision. A census similarly limited in scope was taken in 1956.
(b) The 1979 census and the 1979 sample labour force survey will be carried out as an integrated operation at an estimated combined cost, at current prices, of £2.2 million, of which the census will account for some £2 million. It is estimated that a comprehensive census would cost about £3.1 million at current prices.
(c) The necessary preparatory work for the census, much of which is independent of the actual content of the census questionnaire, could not be completed before April 1978. Therefore, the earliest appropriate date on which the census could be held would be April 1979, bearing in mind the need to maintain consistency with previous censuses.
(d) It is anticipated that provisional figures will be published in August 1979, in respect of total population, classified by sex, county, county borough, rural district and urban district. This will be followed in January 1980 by the publication of final population figures for the above-mentioned areas and also for towns with legally defined boundaries and for administrative areas such as district electoral divisions and wards. A further volume will be published during 1980 containing analyses by sex, age and marital status. The results of the associated labour force survey will also be published during 1980.
(e) If a comprehensive census were taken in 1979 the basic population figures for administrative areas could be produced by about February 1980. There is, however, an EEC requirement to take a full census in 1981, which year would accord with the normal census-taking pattern.
Can the Minister explain why there is a gap up to April of this year before the questions for the census are ready, if the information which this census will elicit is purely demographic and of a very limited kind? Why should it take eight or nine months after the original announcement to prepare the set of questions for eliciting demographic information?
It takes quite an amount of time to make the necessary preparations and the Deputy can take my word for it that it would take this time.
The Minister is hitting me with a child in my arms in asking me to take his word for anything. Could the Minister tell the House why there will be a necessary delay of a further 12 months from the date on which these questions become ready to the day on which the collectors go out and distribute the questionnaires?
From experience it has been found that the April-May period is the ideal time for taking a census. On the basis that it would take up to April-May of this year to get ready it would be inappropriate to endeavour to take the census at a different time of the year. Experience for each five years since 1946 has shown that April-May is the ideal time to take the census.
While accepting that, I wonder is the Minister serious in telling the House that it would not have been possible to contrive the completion of the census forms in time to permit this study to be done in April-May of this year? There is something fishy in the census.
The Deputy has asked this question and two others.
I have one other question to ask. Apart from the labour force survey, which would have been conducted in any event, and concentrating on the limited census with the demographic data which it will produce, will these data represent information which will be of any economic or planning value which would not have been available from other official sources or from easy calculations based on them?
That is a separate question. Question No. 2.
This is very important. I have to put it to the Minister that the indignation over the cancellation of the 1976 census was based on the lack of economic information and that that indignation turns out now to be very largely a pretence.
It is very necessary that we get the data it is planned to procure under the next census. We are very handicapped in planning at present without this data.
Would the Minister tell the House what data the census, as distinct from the labour force survey, will produce apart from demographic material which is easily available from calculations and from official documents already there?
The Deputy can ask that question of me tomorrow.
I have a separate question for the Minister tomorrow but I wish to hear the Taoiseach's reply too.
Order. I am calling Question No. 2.