asked the Taoiseach the number of census forms in the 1971 census that were completed in Irish; and the proportion of the total number of forms which they comprised.

The information requested by the Deputy is not available.

Will the Minister of State ask the Central Statistics Office to make sure that this information will be available in respect of the 1979 census?

I propose to ask that, particularly in relation to the 1981 census.

Why not in relation to the 1979 census?

If we are talking about age, whether it is in Irish or English, it is very difficult to differentiate——

Would the Minister of State not agree that the number of forms applied for in Irish might help to give our educational and other planners some kind of index to the strength of support for the language in the country as a whole?

I am surprised by what the Deputy is saying because in the 1971 census form, both Irish and English were used. There was no question of applying for one or the other.

Apparently there was no information in the CSO on the number of forms completed in Irish, as opposed to those completed in English.

That is what I said. In my view this is something of which a record should have been kept.

Are those forms still available? If so, would the Minister of State make them available to a researcher who might like to calculate the figures?

At this stage that would not be a worth-while exercise.