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Did you know that you can actually be fined for not completing your census forms? Apparently it’s a serious deal to go withholding information from your friendly neighbourhood enumerator.

The Irish Times reports that six householders are about to get into some serious trouble for refusing to complete their census forms in last year’s survey. In fact, they could face fines of up to €25,000 if they are convicted in the Circuit Court. Seriously.

We know information is important but €25,000 for not writing down your name and where you live? That’s just a tad bit steep, don’t you think?

The six cases have been forwarded to the Chief State Solicitor’s Office, according to a spokeswoman for the Central Statistics Office who spoke to the Irish Times.

Around 20 households had “refused outright” to co-operate with the census but a “significant proportion” of these households eventually gave in and completed their forms after speaking to the CSO a little bit more, according to the spokeswoman.

We wonder how they went about refusing to participate in the survey. Did they just go “NO!” and slam the door every time an enumerator tried to give them a form? If so, that’s pretty hilarious…

“The vast majority of the population are very supportive of the census and understand the value which the results have in a rapidly changing society,” said the spokeswoman.

Why didn’t the people fill in their forms like good citizens? The CSO was not able to comment on why the six householders refused to fill in their forms. We like to imagine it’s because they’re all secret agents and can’t release their real identities to Government officials…but more realistically it’s probably because they have issues with privacy or something. Disappointed.

But if they do have issues with privacy, they’re not alone. 800 people signed an online petition last year demanding a boycott of the census. Why? They cited security concerns as an outside contractor from the UK was being used. However, before the census, the CSO reassured the public that all forms would be processed in the CSO’s main office by directly employed staff.

Full results of the census are due in the coming months. It will be interesting to see if these six householders will actually be fined €25,000 for not completing their forms.