Tom Kitt (Dublin South, Fianna Fail)

I stand over the CSO's figures. Just looking at the detail and amount of preparation for the census, the CSO's staff are to be commended. They delivered questionnaires to 1.5 million dwellings. As Deputies know, there were 400 field supervisors and 4,400 enumerators. The CSO, following consultation with the Office of the Chief State Solicitor, pursued a number of cases in which households refused outright to co-operate.

There are a number of key points. I know from my contacts with the CSO that it is confident that its census coverage was close to the targeted 100%, to the extent that if there was any under-enumeration of the population it would be no more than 1%, or around 40,000 persons. From the feedback received from field staff, it was considered highly unlikely that non-Irish nationals would have accounted for more than 10,000 of this conjectured under-enumeration. The amount of work was enormous. For example, the figure that emerged with regard to the Polish population on census night was 63,276. The work was detailed and required much preparation, and a large number of staff was required. I stand by the figures that were given to me. I agree it is vital that we have accurate figures for the purposes of planning.

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