Tom Kitt (Dublin South, Fianna Fail)

The number of households which failed or refused to complete a census form in the recent census, though not precisely known at this stage, is believed to be relatively small.

The Central Statistics Office employed a field force comprising 40 regional supervisors, 400 field supervisors and 4,400 enumerators to carry out the census field operation. The 4,400 enumerators visited approximately 1.8 million private residences and communal establishments during the course of a nine-week field campaign. They delivered blank questionnaires to 1.5 million dwellings which were expected to be occupied on census night, 23 April 2006. Of the remaining 300,000 residences, 275,000 were vacant at the time of the census while in the remaining 25,000 cases the household was either enumerated elsewhere or temporarily absent from the State.

The vast majority of the population are very supportive of the census and understand the value which the results have in a rapidly changing society. In a small number of cases householders may have initially refused to complete their census forms. However, through the intervention of the field supervisors, and in some cases regional supervisors, it was possible to persuade the majority of these householders to comply. The number of households that refused outright to co-operate with the census was less than 20. The CSO will consult the Office of the Chief State Solicitor with a view to pursuing cases through the courts.

Despite the tenacity of the enumerators in making contact with householders during the course of the nine-week field campaign a number of householders may have evaded contact. Operating under strict guidelines, the enumerators were instructed to impute basic demographic information such as age, sex and nationality for the occupants of these households. The details were filled in by the enumerators on census forms with the word "IMPUTE" entered in the county of birth portion of the form to distinguish the census form as one which was constructed. When all of the census forms are processed it will be possible to derive an exact figure for the extent of this category. However, preliminary indications are that the number of persons involved is of the order of 6,000. The relevant population was included in the data published in the preliminary census report last July.

See this speech in context