Some people may be asked to post back their completed census forms next April because of the predicted scarcity of part-time workers to collect the forms.
The Central Statistics Office needs 4,000 census enumerators to deliver and collect the census, which is carried out every four years. It will advertise for the workers in the next few weeks but has already made contingency plans for collecting the forms.
A CSO spokeswoman said the agency had carried out a pilot survey where participants had to post back the forms, and the results were encouraging. "If we have difficulties in urban areas, then we may have to have use a mail-back procedure," she said. If there was a labour shortage, it should only affect such areas.
The Central Statistics Office has already recruited senior managers and supervisors for next year's census. The Department of Finance has increased pay levels for enumerators. Temporary part-time workers will receive about £1,500 plus allowances for dealing with about 350 households. This work takes an average of 25 hours a week for eight to 10 weeks. This is an increase of about £500 on the payment for Census 1996.
In the Government Estimates issued last week, the collection of statistics by the CSO is expected to cost more than £19 million. Every household must have received a census form by census day, April 29th, 2001.
The census will not include a question on race or ethnicity but will ask if the respondent is a member of the Traveller community. It will also include two detailed questions on disability.
The last census in 1996 found that the population of the State had increased by 100,000 to 3.62 million. It also found that the average family size had shrunk to 1.8 people and the number of broken marriages had increased to 87,800.
