Census 2011 - Never too late to learn from census

EVEN though the census, taken on April 10, shows that the population of the Republic has grown to 4,581,269 — up 341,421 on the last count — Ireland still has the highest birthrate amongst the 27 European Union countries.

Whether this is down to a cultural proclivity, a natural, robust fecundity or, as the Health Service Executive’s Crisis Pregnancy Programme reported earlier this week, that almost half — 44% — of Irish pregnancies are unplanned is uncertain. Latest figures show some 73,724 births last year, a slight decline on the 74,278 babies born the year before.

However, if we have earned this EU status because of a lack of education, awareness or simple indifference then this is just one of the many issues raised by the census we would do well to address.

Even in the best of times it is wrong to bring a child into the world unless that child is dearly wanted and its parents are in a position to support it. In these straitened times it borders on selfish recklessness.

The preliminary findings of census 2011 offer just a glimpse of Ireland in the last few years and tell, in yet another sad way, of our national insanity.

New, largely unwanted housing, is as good a prism as any to use to look backwards and it is not a pretty sight though it is a salutary lesson.

Total housing stock has increased by 13.3% in the last five years, meaning that the vacancy rate has fallen slightly to 14.7%. Housing stock grew by 21.2% in Laois, the biggest jump in the country, though the need for this increase is hardly obvious. Indeed the population shifts highlighted in the census make many of these developments, especially those in the west and the south west, seem even more fanciful. Nevertheless, counties Cavan, Donegal, Leitrim and Longford all recorded increases of just under 20% in housing stock.

The last census showed that 15% of housing was vacant in April 2006. That figure has jumped from 266,322 to 294,202.

It is interesting, and probably a reflection of the cost of development land, that the country’s five cities showed the lowest increases in housing stock.

Reflecting the ever-changing mix of this country’s population and, if not on the same scale, citizenship census 2011 concentrated on some of the issues around immigration in a way its predecessors did not. One of these was the respondent’s proficiency in English. All across Europe the successful integration of immigrants has been stymied by language barriers. Some immigrants do not have the basic educational skills needed to easily take on a new language, others prefer to try to turn their new home into a version of the country they left behind and refuse to integrate. We have avoided some of the conflict immigration has brought to Europe and if that happy situation is to continue then the relevant supports must be put in place because the immigrants will come one way or another.

Of course, the main lesson of this census is that we did not learn the lessons of the past. This report however offers us an opportunity to prove that it is never too late to learn.