Tom Kitt (Dublin South, Fianna Fail)

I accept Deputy Rabbitte's remarks. There are serious issues to be addressed on the electoral register. The Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government has been dealing with that and has sent guidance to local authorities. There is talk of connecting it with the PPS number. This census is taken every five years while the electoral register is made every year. The census relates to statistics which are important for national, regional and local planning.

Because the enumerators will operate in a tight schedule and will be fully occupied and focused during the nine weeks of the census campaign, there is no scope for additional duties. The lot of the enumerator is more onerous than before because of a mobile population where making contact has become more difficult.

The census covers everybody in the country on census night at the place where they spend that night. The electoral register deals with a person's usual residence. If both jobs were to be carried out by the census enumerators there is a danger that the coverage and definition of the census might suffer. There must be a clear public perception that the census is not linked to any other operation. Making the connection between census delivery and collection and the register of electors would have a detrimental effect on the census and would jeopardise the success of the operation. It is a fundamental principle of statistics internationally that while the information derived from registers can be used to provide statistics, information collected for statistical purposes only cannot feed into maintaining registers.

While the Deputy has well-founded concerns about the accuracy of the register, the census of population is not the way to improve it. This is a question for the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government. The Minister has been addressing the issue and his Department assured me this morning that extra resources are being provided and more work is being done. Deputy Rabbitte's colleague, Deputy Gilmore, has raised this. The census is vital for future planning and I would be concerned if we diluted the work of the enumerators.

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