Tom Kitt (Dublin South, Fianna Fail)

With the Chair's permission I will deal with the question raised by Deputy Rabbitte with regard to a comparison between the census work and the work now being carried out on the electoral register. The Labour Party has proposed to legislate for using information gathered in the census to update the electoral register. This would be a fundamental breach of trust by the State. I explained before that the seal of confidentiality under which census data is collected is a binding contract between the State and the citizen. An attempt to undermine that trust, as suggested by the Labour Party, could undermine the compilation of the census, not just now but in years to come. People must be assured that their right of privacy will not be legislated away after the event. Not only is the proposal unethical, it is not even sensible. Tourists or temporary workers staying in Ireland on the night of the census would find themselves on the Irish electoral register. There are serious issues with regard to the confidential nature of the census exercise as compared to the work of compiling the electoral register. My colleague, the Minister for Finance, has said there are over 1,500 field workers involved in that process. I do not wish to reopen that debate, but it is important for me to answer the question.

With regard to the figure of 6,000 to which I referred, the answer is yes, the enumerators were asked to impute the figures in those cases. Having returned time after time it was their duty to try to establish, perhaps from neighbours or other channels, figures for who and how many were there. The figure of 6,000 in the initial figures has been included in the overall figure derived from the work of the census.

With regard to legal action, the number of households that refused outright to co-operate — despite the fact the information provided is confidential, some people have a problem co-operating and refuse to do so for their own reasons — is very small. I referred to a figure of approximately 20, but the number of households that refused outright to co-operate with the census operation was less than 20. As a refusal to respond to the census is an offence under the Statistics Act 1993, the CSO will consult with the Office of the Chief State Solicitor with a view to pursuing these cases through the courts. That process is at an initial stage and no prosecutions have yet been made. The issue will be followed up and those who refused to comply will be pursued legally. Fines were set as high as £20,000 in the original Act and can now go to €25,000 on conviction.

See this speech in context