Census forms to include ‘time capsule’ section to gather messages for people of 2122

A “time capsule” element is to be included in this year’s census, with participants being asked to leave a message which will be stored for 100 years before being released to the public, the Dáil has heard.

Government Chief Whip Jack Chambers said eight questions covering issues such as internet access, smoking, working from home, childcare and volunteering would also be added to the form, with census night taking place on April 3rd.

“This census form will also contain a time capsule for the first time,” he said. “This optional section of the form will enable householders to complete a message of their choosing. These messages will be stored securely with the census forms for 100 years, when they’ll be released to the public in line with Section 35 of the Statistics Act 1993.

“Detailed information will also be collected on the housing stock by census enumerators. For the first time this information will include a reason for vacancy for dwellings which are found to be vacant.”

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Advanced stage

Mr Chambers said the Central Statistics Office’s (CSO) preparations for Census 2022 are “at an advanced stage” with more than 5,000 enumerators due to be recruited by the end of this month.

He said the CSO expects to release preliminary population and housing results by the end of June, with “the publication of the detailed official results to commence in the second quarter of 2023”.

People Before Profit TD Richard Boyd Barrett said he would ask people in his time capsule if 100 years of government had managed to sort out the housing crisis.

“I fear we may well find they haven’t or have they even managed a review of the social housing income threshold,” he added.