The speculation will be over soon The 2011 Census will include a count of empties and the numbers are to be published in the summer sometime . By my estimate the number of Holiday Homes and Empties will be in the 350k-360k range seeing as holiday homes are unlikely to be in use on sunday night.
This thread is for idle and not so idle speculation on those imminent results.
Edgar Morgenroth over on Irish Economy seemed to indicate that he was gonna check the ESB figures…to which I do not have access. Referred to here
irisheconomy.ie/index.php/20 … te-report/
Nothing forthcoming yet from Edgar.
Does any know if the same definition for habitable dwelling is being used for the 2011 census as for the previous one?
Blue Horseshoe
Another Ground Hog day thread! 
I live in an apartment complex in D7. The enumerator who called to us said he was having difficulty handing out forms to numerous apartments (a lot of the apartments are rented and for some reason the tenants simply do not answer their doors when they are knocked on).
Anyway, he said he would simply fill in any forms he hadn’t been able to hand out himself, and mark the uncontactable properties as “unoccupied”.
Sorry if that’s groundhog day stuff, but I think it’s astounding.
Especially if the “empties” figure is to be believeable.
This is one time where the internet really fails to capture the true excitement of a large squirrel predicting the empties 
Is that legal?
No it’s not, he’s out of a job if he does that. The procedure is to use all the available information (from neighbours, management etc) to find out how many people live in the apartment.
It is then filled out on a best guess estimate with all data like age, religion of the residents etc left out. They have statistical matrices filled out to then assign ages, religion etc.
They do not mark uncontactable properties as unoccupied if they are clearly occupied (lights on, noise from behind door etc)
Well the procedure is if someone won’t answer the door is to post in a form with a letter. If they don’t fill it in and return it then various threatening letters are sent. If these have no effect, then an estimate of the inhabitants is made from local knowledge. This may be difficult in urban areas and is frowned upon by the CSO - the form has to be signed by the enumerator’s supervisor’s manager. If an enumerator says a house is vacant - he/she gets paid a little less, but one could see a less diligent enumerator taking the easy way out and saying a house/apartment is vacant.
I know of lots of people who don’t answer doors in rented accomodation because they don’t pay the TV licence and don’t want to get caught. I don’t know if it works, but it happens
It works, Mr. TV Licence needs a name of someone in the house at the same time as a television is detected.
with the magical detecting equipment?
Yes indeed it works. Lived in a rented apartment for 4 years and never answered the door to an unexpected knock. If it was someone I knew, they rang my mobile and I’d answer…all to avoid the tv licence man. The amount of threatening letters was large, the actual consequences non-existant.
Mr TV Licence is quite happy to swear in court that he saw a tv through the gap in the curtains.
With regard to threatening letters, be careful, if they do find out your name or a name, that person gets summonsed to court and if they don’t turn up the guards do turn up to take them to the joy.
This is from personal experience, door was answered to Mr. TV licence by a house guest of mine (currently in Australia) he was informed that there was no tv in the house and given a name.
There were a few letters which I returned as “Gone Away” and one night the cops turned up with an arrest warrant.
The system is efficient when you owe the state €160, not quite so efficient when you owe the state’s banks a few billion.
(Well off topic at this stage).
So mr TV licence can only swear in court if you have been informed and to do that he needs a name. It doesn’t matter that he sees the TV through the curtains unless he can get a name.
Yes but if Mr. TV Licence is prepared to perjure himself then he may not be too scrupulous in the methods he uses to get a name. He may for instance ask next door on a pretext…
The CSO does check with the ESB where enumerators are persistently unable to gain entry…ie where the place is full of Chinese illegals hiding behind the curtains.
My information is that 1.7m forms were given out by enumerators which = 1.7m premises where a person could be found to admit responsibility for filling the form. Mixture of Permanently Occupied and Holiday Homes.
No, that’s 2Pat. Now delete this comment and less speculation about identities.