Emer Higgins (Dublin Mid West, Fine Gael)
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1. To ask the Taoiseach the cost of census enumerators during the gathering and processing of data for census 2016. [7387/21]

Jack Chambers (Dublin West, Fianna Fail)
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For the delivery of the 2016 Census, approximately 4,700 Enumerators were employed on a temporary, unestablished part-time, fixed term contract basis for a 10-week period from 21^stMarch to 27^thMay, 2016 to deliver and collect census questionnaires to/from every dwelling and communal establishment nationwide. The entire field force for a census comprises various levels of temporary managerial, supervisory and public facing staff, of which Enumerators are the most numerous. The cost of the census field operation in 2016, which includes the pay for the field force, related allowances and the undertaking of the operation was in the region of €31 million. The cost of the Enumerators was approximately €17 million of this total, in the form of fees and allowances on a piece meal basis.

In terms of the processing of the Census 2016 data, this was completed by temporary clerical and supervisory staff based in the Census HQ office. At the height of the processing work approximately 100 of these staff were employed by the CSO.