Census figures just don’t add up

ONE wonders at the necessity of conducting a census, especially as it appears there were only 63,090 Polish nationals in the country on ‘census night’.

Anecdotal evidence suggests that no more than 20-25% of Polish nationals completed the form. The figure for Polish people living in Ireland would therefore be in the order of 250,000 to 300,000. The census office could easily confirm these figures by cross-checking with the Department of Social Affairs on the amount of PPS numbers.

The Poles, in common with other EU citizens from former Soviet bloc countries, continue to have a deep distrust of government institutions, having suffered for years under repressive regimes. It is therefore reasonable to suppose that completion rate of the census form by all these people was at low. The total number of eastern Europeans living in here would therefore be in the order of 560,000 to 700,000, and not the 140,000 as per the census returns.

Planning for infrastructure, schools, hospitals, policing, electoral boundaries, etc, are based on census returns. If these are not accurate, then we all suffer.

Greater cooperation between Government departments would help in establishing the margin of error and give a truer indication of Ireland’s population and ethnic mix.

Eamon Goggin

Woodlands

Kerry Pike

Co Cork