Hearing by Joint Committee on Environment, Culture and the Gaeltacht on
"Developing a Plan to Capture the Full Value of our Genealogical Heritage"
Opening Statement by CSO
28 January 2014
Introduction
The CSO welcomes the opportunity to address the Joint Committee on Environment, Culture and
the Gaeltacht on the subject of 'Developing a Plan to Capture the Full Value of our Genealogical
Heritage'.
The mandate of the Central Statistics Office is set out in section 10(1) of the Statistics Act 1993,
which states that ‘The functions of the Office shall be the collection, compilation, extraction and
dissemination for statistical purposes of information relating to economic, social and general
activities and conditions in the State.’
A wide range of statistics
The CSO produces a wide range of information covering a broad variety of topics. Some 300
statistical releases are published each year covering items such as indicators of GDP and
government debt, detailed data on imports and exports of goods and services, and demographic
indictors of population and migration flows. Data of particular interest to this committee on
demographic trends and tourism statistics are published regularly. Information on emigration has
been measured since 1987 with total estimates available broken down by age, sex, nationality,
and destination. Data on overseas trips to Ireland has been published since 1976 and currently
covers topics such as reason for journey, residency, length of stay and expenditure. All of the
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statistics produced and published by the CSO are available on the CSO web site, free of charge,
and the office has a dedicated information and enquiries sections to assists users with finding
what they need.
Confidentiality
All information supplied to the CSO is treated as strictly confidential. The Statistics Act, 1993
sets out the stringent confidentiality standards that must apply to all statistical information,
namely ‘Information collected may be used only for statistical purposes, and no details that
might be related to an identifiable person or business undertaking may be divulged to any other
government department or body.’
Preserving the confidentiality of information collected for statistical purposes is the cornerstone
of the work carried out in all statistical agencies worldwide. This basic principle is enshrined in
the United Nations Fundamental Principles of Official Statistics and is further reinforced by EU
legislation which lays out the principles under which European Statistics must be compiled
(European Statistics Code of Practice), one of which is statistical confidentiality.
Census
While section 32 of the Statistics Act 1993 states that ‘all information furnished by a person,
undertaking or public authority under this Act shall be used only for statistical compilation and
analysis purposes’ section 35 of the Act deals with the census and says ‘In the case of a census of
population undertaken under this act, or under the repealed enactments, the restrictions of section
32 and 33 of this act shall cease to apply 100 years after the data of the relevant census’.
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1901 and 1911 Census of Population
While the CSO has no mandate in the area of genealogical heritage we are of course fully aware
of the success of the publication of the 1901 and 1911 Census Records. We recognise that this
had been a landmark event in facilitating access to State genealogical records.
It is important to note that this Census Records Project was carried out by the National Archives
in partnership with the Library and Archives of Canada and that the CSO had no role, advisory,
practical, advisory or otherwise.
The 1926 census
The 1926 census is due to be released in 2026. The 1926 Census records have never been microfilmed and a significant level of work is required to scan and cross-index the individual return
sheets in advance of publication. The Minister for Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht has
established a ‘1926 Census Working Group’, which comprises officials from his Department, the
National Archives and the Central Statistics Office, to examine all of the relevant issues.
Conclusion
The CSO recognises the work of the Committee and the plan to capture the full value of our
genealogical heritage within existing legislation. We are happy to explore ways that this office
can contribute to furthering the goals of the committee.
Thank You!
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