Catherine Murphy (Kildare North, Independent)
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Question 135: To ask the Taoiseach his views on introducing a population registration system as a replacement of the Census of population system in view of the fact that such a system would have the benefit of real time information rather than historic information gathered at one point in time and in further view of the potential for such a system to be used for planning services together with providing an accurate electoral register; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [17346/06]

Tom Kitt (Dublin South, Fianna Fail)
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The introduction of a population registration system is not fundamentally a statistical issue — it would have major implications for the organisation and regulation of civil society. Countries which maintain population registers make registration a mandatory requirement before transactions such as change of residence, eligibility for school attendance and entitlement to a driver's licence, can be undertaken. Registration might also involve members of the public carrying national identity cards.

The introduction and maintenance of a fully functioning population registration system could only take place if the necessary legal underpinning in relation to data protection and data privacy is in place. In particular the use of population register details for electoral register purposes would require the relevant legal backing bearing in mind the mandatory nature of population registration compared with the present voluntary nature of registration on the Register of Electors.

In devising a population register all relevant stakeholders would have to be consulted in an open and transparent way and the necessary agreement reached before committing to a project of this magnitude.

Clear statistical benefits would flow from a fully functioning and comprehensive population register. The administrative data derived from this source could form part of the corpus of official statistics. Some countries use information from administrative databases such as population and housing registers as a replacement for traditional population censuses. The costs of establishing and maintaining a register would be significant and it should be emphasised that realising the statistical benefits would require ongoing quality assessments of the up-to-dateness of the register details.

Among the benefits, which might accrue, are major cost savings and a reduction of respondent burden. However, the topics covered in any analysis of administrative sources would of necessity be confined to those on the relevant register. This might be a serious shortcoming as it is unlikely that the richness and variety of the topics covered in a census could be replicated in a population register.

Many of the countries with population registers adhere to the same frequency of publishing census type information as those which undertake traditional censuses only while the use of scanning and recognition technologies and automatic coding techniques have meant that the results of traditional censuses are now made available within a reasonable time-frame.