Éamon Ó Cuív (Galway West, Fianna Fail)
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Question 82: To ask the Taoiseach the number of enumerators employed on short-term contracts for Census 2011; the number of these who were in receipt of public service pensions; the number who were in receipt of jobseeker's benefit or allowance immediately prior to their employment; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [18373/11]

Paul Kehoe (Wexford, Fine Gael)
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A total of 4,854 census enumerators were recruited to assist with the field work on the 2011 census. All of the recruitment for the census field operation was carried out by the CSO under licence by the Commission for Public Service Appointments and complied 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). Availability was one but not the only criterion used in accessing candidates, but clearly those in full-time work would have been assessed as having low availability and therefore this would have had a negative effect on their candidature. It was not open to the CSO to exclude candidates on this basis of their employment status.

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. 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. Information on the number of retired public servants employed as enumerators as requested by the Deputy is not available.