Using Census as protest is wrong target

Dear sir - I refer to the letter in the 26th March edition of your paper calling for a boycott of the census as a means of protest against the previous government. I would like to suggest to your readers and to Mr Cullen that in picking on the census to air his grievances he has chosen the wrong target. This is a very important time for Ireland and the 2011 census is of vital national importance to the country. The census is and always has been conducted by the Central Statistics Office, an independent Office which operates under the aegis of the Department of the Taoiseach. The CSO in our role as an independent statistical agency has always acted as an impartial voice for the country and over the past couple of years has played a crucial role in public debate by basically telling it as it is through a wide range of statistics. The 2011 census results will contribute enormously to this reservoir of knowledge and information. The first detailed results will be available within a year of census day for every town and district in Ireland, and will be used by a very wide range of people and organisations from local community groups and small start-up businesses right up to local and central government. In our experience over many censuses people in Ireland clearly see the benefits the census brings. To suggest a boycott of the census is in our opinion highly irresponsible and risks disenfranchising the people of Meath by threatening to diminish the quality of the census count for the county. We would encourage the residents of Meath to participate fully in the census and to visit the census.ie website to get a feel for enormous benefits the census information will bring to Ireland over the coming years. Yours Deirdre Cullen, Senior statistician, Census 2011