Catherine Murphy (Kildare North, Social Democrats) | Oireachtas source

No one in the Chamber will dispute that people doing the work of distributing and collecting the census forms should be paid. Of course they should be paid. What we are being asked to do is approve that, which I certainly have no difficulty doing. I wonder why that was not approved earlier and why we are doing it now when we knew the work would have to be done.

Obviously, we all encourage people to fill in their forms and get them back but there is a confusion. I do not know if people pick it up from time to time. People say to me "I filled in the census form so why am I not on the electoral register?" It happens all the time. The issue of confidentiality is not being made clear, if people think it can be used for that purpose. There must be a doubt. If that is a reason people have a doubt or do not fill in the forms, we must be very clear. Every time there is a census, I hear that said.

Obviously, the value in the census is to gather information, plan for services and look for trends. The 100-year rule is one that has been put in place so that people can feel confident about their information being private. However, I consider 100 years to be too long. The commitment made in the previous programme for Government to release the 1926 census should have been followed up. In other countries, 70 years is the benchmark, albeit there is a variety of approaches internationally, with some countries destroying the census after the information has been gathered. From an historical point of view, the 1926 census is an important one, as Deputy Ó Snodaigh has said, and I agree completely that it should be released early given that it will take time to digitise. It is more important from an historical than a genealogical point of view but we have seen the value of the 1911 and 1901 censuses and the fine work done by the National Archives on that project.

Gathering the information to plan for public services is the central reason for the census. From 1821 to 1971, the information was gathered every ten years, with the exception of 1921, and every five years thereafter with a blip when the census was gathered in 1979. As such, there has been no shortage of information gathered over a very long period. However, we have been appalling at using that information to deliver public services, as evidenced by a whole range of different things. Policy does not flow from it which it must if we are going to take an evidence-based approach to decision making. Children are included on the census taken every five years and as such, one can pretty well predict trends. Nevertheless, we see near surprise when a school is needed in a particular location. Things are not as bad as they used to be but policy, institutional arrangements and physical buildings are still not flowing as they should from the information gathered. The other issue involves demographic trends and class sizes. If one can see that there is consistent growth in an area where there is a disproportionately young population and housing is built for those working nearby, one can predict that local schools will require additional teachers. However, there are parts of the country with historically high class sizes in proportion to the rest of the country. These are areas where there has been consistent and rapid population growth. What we do is to place an historical model on the distribution of teachers which means that what a school gets depends on what size its classes were in the previous year even where it is known that the trend is upwards. That is bad planning and it militates against children in areas where there is high population growth.

Indeed, one sees the same thing happening in other areas, including traffic management. We are asking people if they go to work on a motorbike, in a car or on foot. We have been asking that question for years but we do not follow it through. It is an origin and destination study on a grand scale and yet we do not seem to be able to plan a sustainable transport system which is matched to the actual figures. Housing is another area. We will be able to see the vacancy rate from the census and gather the statistics but the issue of critical importance is using those statistics appropriately.

On our health services, we are invited on the census form to describe our health and one can see the national age profile. One would imagine that would give one a rough idea of care needs and health needs. One must ask why we are gathering this information.

While I encourage people to fill in and hand back their census forms, we must stop simply gathering statistics and start using them. The same applies in the case of broadband. It was a missed opportunity not to place new questions on the census form. We must consider what issues must be planned for in order to meet future needs. The mixture of technology and data provides great opportunities for planning now and into the future and allows for a broader range of activities based on the statistics.

Unfortunately, one issue will be a feature of the census information that is being gathered. The 1841 census set the population at 8.1 million people. If I remember correctly, the population of England, Scotland and Wales was 18 million in the same year and New York's was 330,000 or 350,000. We now have a population of less than 4.5 million whereas England, Scotland and Wales are approaching 60 million and New York city has approximately 10 million to 12 million. The main story of our census is that we continue to leak our population to other parts of the world. We never have the critical mass to deliver the kinds of public service required by large populations. The age profile of the people at work is also disproportionate relative to the number of dependants. This will create problems with paying pensions as our population ages.

If these factors scream anything, it is that we need to grow and retain the population and do things differently, for example, how we develop the regions. These are not dry statistics but the story of our population since the day census taking began. One can confidently predict that the current census will show a continuing outflow. We will never redress the situation unless we learn the lesson that we need to grow the population. The census figures show our country's history of emigration. There is a point at which that must stop.

See this speech in context