The Government has decided to reject a proposed question dealing with ethnicity in next year's Census. Instead, it will ask if respondents are members of the Traveller community and inquire about their nationality.
The proposal for an ethnic question came from the Central Statistics Office following the piloting of new questions. It would have asked respondents to tick a box stating they were White, Irish Traveller, Black, Chinese, Mixed or Other.
These categories are a truncated version of a question on the Northern Ireland census. Mr Niall Crowley, director of the Equality Authority, stressed the importance of collecting data on black and other minority ethnic groups, and said the Census was the key means to do so. If it could not be used, another means must be found, he said.
The question on nationality will ask respondents if they are Irish, British, or Other. Some information on ethnic origin will be available from questions asking people where they were born, and if they moved here recently.
In the pilot census the terms "head of household" or "joint head of household" were dropped and each adult was listed separately, describing their relationship to each other.
A new category, "remarried following divorce", has been introduced, and the terms "partner", "step-children" and "stepparents" are included. Questions on disability and caring for ill or disabled people are included for the first time, along with more specific questions on type of accommodation (including mobile and temporary structures), occupation and hours worked, and time of leaving home for work or college.