Eoghan Murphy (Dublin South East, Fine Gael)
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Question 75: To ask the Taoiseach the steps he will take to ascertain the number of people affected by autism; and the reason a provision for collecting this information was not included in the recent census. [14044/11]

Paul Kehoe (Wexford, Fine Gael)
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As part of the preparatory work for the 2011 census, the CSO conducted a public consultation on the topics to be covered; all Government Departments were contacted for their input and a notice calling for submissions was published in the national press. Over 90 submissions covering 31 topics were received in total, among them submissions on the subject of disability, and in particular on the subject of autism. All submissions were considered by a specially convened Census Advisory Group which was representative of central and local government, the social partners, universities, research bodies and other users of census data along with the relevant CSO personnel. A specific sub-group was convened to consider the disability questions on the census form. This sub-group was composed of representatives from the National Disability Authority, the Equality Authority, the Disability Federation of Ireland and the National Federation of Voluntary Bodies.

The proposal to list specific disabilities within the disability question, namely to make specific reference to autistic spectrum disorder, or Down's syndrome, in the category 'A learning or intellectual disability' was considered at the second meeting of the group. The group concluded that it would not be appropriate, nor would there be enough room on the census form, to list all individual disabilities. However, in order to go some way towards accommodating this request the existing (2006 census) category 'A learning or intellectual disability' was split into two categories 'An intellectual disability' and separately 'A difficulty with learning, remembering or concentrating'. The group felt that this approach narrowed the categories and thus helped address the issue of autism, while allowing the question to remain as inclusive as possible.

The topics that were ultimately included in the recent census were agreed by Government at its meeting on 11 December 2009 and Question 16 of the 2011 census distinguished the two categories as described above.

The National Disability Survey, which was carried out in 2006 following the Census of Population that year, found a prevalence rate for autism of approximately 4 per 1,000 among children aged 0-17 years. However, international clinical studies generally find higher prevalence rates and this is indicative of the difficulty in measuring autism by means of household surveys or censuses. There are no plans for the CSO to repeat the 2006 National Disability Survey.