asked the Taoiseach if he is satisfied that the census form as laid out allows for information on disabled or handicapped persons to be provided for future State planning; and if he will make a statement on the matter.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Census Form.
3.
Dún Laoghaire): The possibility of including a question on disability or handicap in the Census of Population has been carefully considered on a few occasions in recent years. The conclusion was that the census could not provide the type of information which would be needed to assess reliably the extent and nature of disability in the community. It was considered best that the health and community care services should compile and keep up to date special “registers” of handicapped persons which would not only yield overall quantitative and qualitative measures but would actually contain identified particulars for use by those administering services — something that could never be done as part of a Census of Population.
The Department of Health in conjunction with the Medico Social Research Board and the National Rehabilitation Board have promoted the establishment of such registers. I understand that a register for the mentally handicapped is now complete and kept up-to-date; but that the compilation of a register of physical handicap is still in train.
In view of the fact that the statistics compiled during the census are used for planning, is the Minister happy that he could satisfy the parents of, say, a spina bifida child that there is sufficient planning for children in that category?
(Dún Laoghaire): From a statistical point of view as distinct what would be the concern of the Department of Health, the Census of Population is not the best way of compiling statistics of the type to which the Deputy refers. This was confirmed in the Green Paper Towards a Full Life published in April 1984 by the Minister for Health. Paragraph 2.30 of that document makes it quite clear that the Census of Population is not the best way of gathering statistics of that kind and that a special register would be the best means of gathering the information, particularly in view of the confidentiality of the Census of Population. That information cannot be used publicly for distribution to certain agencies and is not therefore the best way of compiling these statistics. I recognise that the Deputy has a genuine concern about having this information available and I would share his concern.
Will the Minister assure the House that there is sufficient source information to enable proper planning for disabled people, particularly disabled children, in the decades to come?
(Dún Laoghaire): I am quite satisfied that efforts are being made through the Department of Health to establish such special registers and I would sincerely hope that the compilation of a register of the physically handicapped would be completed very shortly, now that the register of the mentally handicapped has been completed.