The census enumerator: People are excited to share what life is like with their great-grandchildren

Cathy Minehane is a census enumerator in Douglas, Cork, and has had about 460 people open their front door to her over the past month.

“90% of people are delighted when they open the front door and are happy to see me because we're doing this for all of our good at the end of the day,” she said: 

It's not just about the population. It's about infrastructure, housing, roads, hospitals, it's about the good of the country. 

Every census form is personally delivered by an enumerator such as Ms Minehane, who talks through the form with the householder when they drop it off and comes back after census night to collect the form and ensure it’s filled out properly.

Ms Minehane says it’s not always plain sailing.

“You have one or two that would be concerned that you’re passing information on to any other government channels,” she said.

“I’ve even had people ask was I handing anything to the TV licence inspector.

“You might meet foreign nationals, people who haven’t been here long enough to have seen previous censuses, so you have to spend a bit more time on the doorstep explaining what it is, but once they understand they say: ‘Oh, no problem, that’s great.’ ”

Even getting as far as an open front door can be a challenge, with enumerators sometimes having to come up with inventive ways to get into apartment blocks and up driveways, trying not to scare off those wary of unfamiliar faces.

“Covid is obviously there, and some people have been cautious to open the front door,” she said.  “With the high-visibility jacket as well, they think you’re selling something, even though ‘Census’ is written on the front. 

I’ve had to turn around a few times because there’s a giant ‘Census Enumerator’ on the back and say: ‘I’m not selling, please open the door to me!’

Ms Minehane said only two of the 460-odd households assigned to her refused to participate, with most delighted to stop and chat — in particular about this year’s time capsule section.

Our message to the future 

“People are really engaging with the time capsule, and the fact we’re the first in the world to have done this on a census,” she said.

"I’ve heard great ideas, people have even told me to hold on as they read out to me what they’ve written down to put in."

“People are talking about tracing hands and feet to compare with future generations. A lot of people are interested in sharing with their grandchildren, or great-grandchildren, what life is like for them now.

“There was one gentleman — I actually was sitting in his garden for half an hour as he read me quotes he’d written himself to put in it, about how you treat a human being, and how you should try and live yourself. It sounded very interesting.”

Although Ms Minehane did not meet any families hosting Ukrainian refugees while delivering forms, she expects to have a few to record on her collection rounds: 

I know several households were planning to take in families when I was delivering, which is wonderful.

“They now may have Ukrainian families with them, so we’ll be bringing individual forms during collection to fill out on the doorstep,” she said. 

Ms Minehane urged people to have their forms ready for collection from Monday onwards, as the high-vis vests will be back on the streets.

“I’d ask everyone to please fill the form on Sunday night because we’ll be hitting the ground running on Monday,” she said.

“Have the form ready on the hall table for us when we arrive, because we’re going to be knocking on doors again first thing on Monday morning.”