A census of population will be held on April 24th, 2016, on the centenary of the Easter Rising. Taoiseach Enda Kenny yesterday asked his Cabinet colleagues to endorse a proposal to hold the next census, due in 2016, on the exact anniversary of the rising.

A spokesman said later that Mr Kenny was conscious of the symbolic implications of holding a census on the 100th anniversary of the Rising which began on Easter Monday, April 24th, 1916. April 24th in 2016 falls on a Sunday, the traditional day for a census.

The 2011 census showed the population of the State had risen to 4.58 million, the highest since the Famine.

Moore Street centre
Also yesterday, Minister for Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht Jimmy Deenihan approved revised designs for the creation of a 1916 commemorative centre at 14-17 Moore Street in Dublin. He set a number of new conditions for the preservation of the buildings.

Number 16 Moore Street was the final headquarters of the leaders of the 1916 Rising prior to their surrender. Numbers 14, 15, 16 and 17 were preserved as a national monument in 2007, meaning any works affecting them require written consent from the Minister.