Thousands of homes will not receive forms ahead of census night

Thousands of homes will not receive census forms in time to fill them out this weekend, partly due to Covid-19 effects on staff, the Central Statistics Office (CSO) has said.

As of Friday, about 5 per cent of households have yet to receive the paperwork, which is supposed to be completed on Sunday night. Those who do not get the forms are being told they will receive them next week and can complete them retrospectively.

The delivery of census forms began in early March and is being conducted by a team of more than 5,000 enumerators. So far, 1.8 million have been delivered with “significant” further progress expected over the next three days.

In a statement the CSO said that, as with previous censuses, certain areas have proved challenging for deliveries, particularly Dublin and Limerick city centres as well as parts of Donegal and Waterford.

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“Areas with a high density of apartment buildings, which can present access challenges, have particularly been impacted. Covid-19 has also led to localised disruption where some enumerators have been required to isolate,” it said.

The CSO said deliveries will continue beyond the weekend and forms can be completed retrospectively, although based on the situation in the home on census night.

Sunday, April 3rd, is likely to be the last night many people are asked to say precisely where they are as they fill in a census form. It may also be the last time the majority of people are asked to fill in a census form on paper.

Simplified process

With planning under way for Census 2027, efforts are in train to simplify the process which involves 5,100 enumerators, 500 managers, multiple visits to homes and facing additional difficulties such as Covid-19 precautions.

According to the CSO, other countries including EU states have moved on from a “de facto” or “snapshot” concept of how many people, including visitors, were living in the country on census night.

“Other countries have moved to a question of ‘habitual residence’, so if you are normally living in Cork but spending the night in Donegal during the 2027 census night, you will likely be asked for your habitual residence, and so you [would] fill in Cork, ” said CSO senior statistician Cormac Halpin.

He said participation in the census is likely to remain mandatory but visitors to Ireland will no longer be included, while Irish holidaymakers abroad will be.

The CSO is prevented by law from sharing identifiable data, including with other State agencies. Data is only shared or published in anonymised statistical form, he said.

“But imagine if we didn’t have reliable data – it would be up to which area shouts loudest when it comes to planning schools, for example.”

Challenges

For Census 2022 enumerators have for the first time been given smartphones to enter data on the status of housing, and to be contacted by householders. The switch has not been easy, however, with some enumerators complaining of connectivity issues and that data has disappeared.

Some enumerators have expressed frustration at a declining trend among apartment dwellers to use doorbells or intercoms in favour of texts or phonecalls.

Mr Halpin acknowledged some technology problems have been encountered but he said information inputted by enumerators into handheld devices was stored for later upload to the CSO database. Supervisors are available to deal with other issues as they arise, he said, adding that given the scale of the operation, it is “not without its challenges”.

The move to the “multi-mode census” will not dispense with all enumerators “but it will take a lot of work out of the operation” said Mr Halpin.

He said full digital collection of data has the potential to eliminate many of the difficulties encountered by enumerators. Households will likely receive a letter with a unique code, to allow them to go online and fill out the census form. A timeframe of about one month to complete the data input is envisaged. Future censuses are likely to remain hybrid version, to some extent, with those who have connectivity or technology problems also being allowed to use paper forms.