Aodhán Ó Ríordáin (Dublin Bay North, Labour)
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237. To ask the Minister for Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht if she will advocate for inclusion of questions regarding access and participation in culture, sports and the arts in the next census. [47797/21]

Catherine Martin (Dublin Rathdown, Green Party)
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In September 2020, the Government, on the advice of the Central Statistics Office (CSO), decided to postpone the 2021 Census due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The next census is now due to take place on 3 April 2022.

The requirement is to deliver a census that achieves the highest possible response rate, across all facets of Irish society and the census of population is a major logistical operation. The decision to postpone the 2021 census until April 2022 was made to enable the CSO to undertake a comprehensive, inclusive and safe census in 2022 which will provide valuable and accurate data for our country in the years ahead.

The census forms for use next year have been finalised and preparation of the census questions is a multi-year project involving public consultation, commencing in 2017. The census advisory group was comprised of representatives from Government Departments, social partners, the Economic and Social Research Institute, the Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission, academia, local government and a range of other people.

The Census includes questions on Irish language usage. My Department engages with the CSO on the questions and census data on an ongoing basis and will continue to do so.

My Department also supports a range of data collection activities on sports, arts and cultural access and participation undertaken by the agencies under its aegis. Included in these are:

- The Irish Sports Monitor (Sport Ireland) – a two –yearly survey on active participation in sport and physical activity, club membership, volunteering and attendance at sporting events among a representative sample of adults (aged 16+)

- The Children’s Sport Participation and Physical Activity Study (Sport Ireland), a periodic study to examine participation in sport, physical activity and physical education among children aged 10 to 18.

- The Arts insights survey, is conducted by Behaviours & Attitudes annually on behalf of the Arts Council, and is based on a nationally representative sample survey, in which participants are asked a series of questions about their engagement with the arts, including attendance, participation, attitudes and behaviour, including at home.