Terence Flanagan (Dublin North East, Fine Gael)
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Question 54: To ask the Taoiseach the position regarding census employees (details supplied); and if he will make a statement on the matter. [6166/11]

Paul Kehoe (Wexford, Fine Gael)
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A total of 5,344 temporary field staff are currently employed by the CSO to carry out the field work on the 2011 census, of whom 4,854 are census enumerators. All of the recruitment for the census field operation has been carried out by the CSO under licence by the Commission for Public Service Appointments and complies with their strict recruitment principles regarding fairness, equality, openness and transparency.

It is important to note that all applicants for enumerator positions were assessed at interview on their availability for census work (given the need to make frequent calls to households at different times of the day); those in full-time work were assessed as having low availability and so would be unlikely to be offered enumerator positions ahead of other suitably qualified candidates. It is more likely that enumerators who were already in employment were working part-time elsewhere. However it was not open to the CSO to exclude people on this basis.

The following table indicates the employment situation and live register status of the 4,854 enumerators, prior to their employment on the census, detailed by the 44 census regions. Sutton and Baldoyle fall into Region 2. A description of the location of the 44 regions is available on the census.ie website. Information on whether persons were previously self-employed, the sectors in which they previously worked and, if applicable, their pension arrangements is not collated as part of the recruitment process and so is unavailable.