Ireland careens into the unknown

The Central Statistics Office has fallen

Incredibly, the Central Statistics Office (CSO) in Ireland are advising people who feel uncomfortable ticking ‘male’ or ‘female’ on the sex question in Census 2022 that they should tick both boxes and the CSO will randomly assign them a sex.

This is despite the fact that the CSO recognises that sex is based upon immutable biological fact and the CSO is required under EU Regulation to ask for accurate sex data: "Asking someone their sex is one of the core variables the CSO must collect in all household surveys which are covered by EU Regulation. Eurostat define the concept of “sex” as the “biological and physiological characteristics that define a person to be either male or female”. They do not allow “don’t know”, “refusal” or “other”. “

There are unanswered questions about the legality of the advice CSO are providing on the sex question. Section 43 of the Statistics Act 1993  states that a person who provides false information, knowing it to be false, shall be guilty of an offence. 

Yet anyone who follows the CSO advice and ticks both male and female on the sex question because they feel uncomfortable ticking male or female, is surely knowingly furnishing false information.

At the launch of the Census the Taoiseach Michael Martin said

“The census, by counting every single person present in Ireland, provides a uniquely comprehensive account of our population. It is far more than a simple counting exercise, the census asks a variety of questions that give us the information that is vital for the planning of public services. There is not a single decision taken, on the provision of public services from health to education and housing, that is not shaped in some way by census data.”

So are every single person's responses important in the census or aren't they? 

Is accurate census data on sex on the provision of public services important or isn't it?

This a valuable historic record for future generations. The Irish census has been collecting answers to the sex question since 1851. This year, for the first time in over 150 years the CSO are advising some people to deliberately answer the sex question inaccurately because they feel uncomfortable and then the CSO will conjure up their sex at random.

At the launch of Census 2022 The Taoiseach said “it will be fascinating to see what Census 2022 tells us about our country“. What Census 2022 will tell future generations is that Ireland has progressed so far as a nation that we allowed the Central Statistics Office to be captured by gender identity ideologues and as a result, the census data on sex in 2022 was irrevocably spoiled.