Sign in. It’s quick, free and it’s up to you.
An account is an optional way to support the work we do. Find out more.
THIS YEAR’S CENSUS is going to be held four weeks from tomorrow and there’s a campaign to make sure people think carefully about one particular question.
Question 12 asks people, What is your religion?
On its specialised website Census.ie, the Central Statistics Office says that everyone should answer the question whether they have a religion or not, but it also gives some guidance about how they answer it.
The CSO says that the question is not about how often they attend church or how they are brought up, but rather how they feel.
“People should answer the question based on how they feel now about their religious beliefs, if any,” the CSO says.
The question is asking about the person’s current religion or beliefs and not about the religion the person may have been brought up with. If the person has a religion they can identify that religion by ticking one of the tick box categories, or by writing in a description of your religion or beliefs in the write-in boxes.
“If they do not have a religion, they should go to the end of the question and mark the ‘No religion’ box.”
One group encouraging people to tick the ‘no religion’ box if they don’t practice or believe in a religion is the Humanists Association of Ireland (HAI).
The HAI says that the census consistently underestimates the number of people who are non-religious.
Its director Terry Flynn argues that the question itself is poorly worded because it presumes people have a religion rather than asking if they do.
Also the way the answer is structured, it doesn’t give you Christian or Muslim or Buddhist, it immediately asks you if you’re Roman Catholic or Church of Ireland. They’re denominations of a religion.
Flynn says it should be a two-part question which first asks you if you practice a religion and, if you say ‘Yes’, only then should ask about the specifics.
“If you look at it, ‘No religion’ is at the bottom, really it should be at the top,” Flynn argues.
Even though the CSO says the answer should be based on how you feel rather than how you were brought up, Flynn says this isn’t made clear to people.
Flynn also says people mightn’t think about the consequences of the religious question. Specifically, how the government may use it in decisions regarding schools and hospitals.
People are unsure what store the government bodies or other people put into it and what policies that could affect. Like, is it just academic information or does it derive policy directly?
Speaking about humanism, Flynn says their members would be made up of atheists, agnostics and others with their members encouraged to have,
an open and rational mind in our belief systems, no superstition and no supernatural.
The 2011 census found that 270,000 people classified themselves as ‘No religion’.
To embed this post, copy the code below on your site
‘‘Tis my money. I just didn’t want to fill out de forms”
Would it be too hard to put a gps tracking device into an ATM?
@artie kelly: Yes but what if the ATM just wanted to go for an evening stroll?
@artie kelly: exactly what I was thinking. And surely some sort of alarm notification once it has been “removed” from the wall. Banks love their money so much I’m surprised there isn’t that kind of setup
@Neil Mac: Banks love YOUR money. They’ve got none of their own, remember?
@Michael Lynch: well said.
Usually it’s the bank who rob the public.
Someone forgot their atm card again
The thieves got away with nothing as the ATM was empty of funds because the tight Caaaavan heures keep all their money under the mattress.
Matter of time before discount stores are selling diggers
‘Thieves rob ATM without using a digger’. Now that will be newsworthy!
@P Mc G: it’s amazing them Cavan people trust the banks
Good news! With the corruption in this country from the top down, why not join the Frey and make the best of it.
Border rats. Hard Brexit is most welcome.
Will the hard border will put a stop to this?
@Random_paddy: one in Cavan ,one in Dungannon ,both sides of the border
Ha, makes a change though. Usually they just walked in and took it. Ffs that bank has been robbed 2 or 3 times in the last 10 years. Sure there used to be a another bank across the road from it. One year they robbed that one and then went across the street to the other and robbed it before getting away.
Do these people not realise that they have security features that destroy the money inside?
@Dan Skelton: ways around everything
@Dan Skelton: they actually open it under water and the ink is oil based and floats to the top then they wash the notes with vanish from the supermarket.
@Eoin Kenny: No, the container has no top and simply spills dye when the machine is moved over a certain degree. Banks deserve to be hit like this when they don’t install the dye in all machines.
Would it be too hard to put a gps tracking device on atms??
Why is there no automatic alarm built in to ATM machines or a GPS tracker??
So what’s new?
ATMs need to be removed from small towns and placed in Garda stations.
@Tim McCormack29: or Garda stations with permanent officers need to be placed in small towns. Having them in Garda stations would not suit a lot of people
@Tim McCormack29:
Would you trust the Gardai ?
@Barry Foster:
Far more than I would trust the banks.
@Tim McCormack29: is there not a Garda station in Kingscourt? Or is it one of those unmanned ones..
Election funding!
How about a self destruct charge which would go up 20 seconds after the atm was removed…..a nice big one!!
have your say