Census to reveal true Traveller numbers

The first true indication of the number of Travellers in Ireland could become clear after this weekend’s census.

The last census in 2002 identified 10,000 travellers; however this figure was disputed because enumerators were responsible for deciding a person's status.

The Director of the Pavee Point Travellers Centre in Dublin, Ronnie Fay says believes there could be as many as 40,000 Travellers in Ireland.

She is encouraging them identify themselves in the census, saying: “We feel if we’ve accurate data we can plan services and we can use that data to advocate better services and increased resources so we would ask fro travellers throughout the state to identify themselves and we would hope the population is a more accurate one which we would say is 35 to 40,000.”

A truer picture of Ireland's ethnic minority groups is also expected to emerge following the census.

It is the first time that people are being given a wide choice of ethnicities by which to define themselves.

The National Consultative Committee on Racism and Interculturalism says the census will also show up the economic disparities between ethnic minorities.

She said: “There are some types of data collection in relation to work permits and things like that, but in general we don’t have an accurate picture and it’s something that people very often ask us for.

"We think this will give us a much more accurate picture, and should be really useful both to organizations like ourselves, and to government bodies who are providing services to minority ethnic groups.”