Fergus O'Dowd (Louth, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the representative from CSO and I note the extent to which the organisation's integrity and professionalism is without challenge. I welcome the data presented.

I wish to deal with the issue of empty homes. The figure for the Dublin city local authorities is 34,000 to 35,000. There are more vacant houses in Dublin than there are in the city of London, which has 20,000 vacant homes according to information published in recent days. There is a huge variation in the number of vacant homes in Dublin in comparison with London. The London rate is 2% to 3% whereas it is much higher here. There is a report in The Irish Timesthis morning to the effect that an auctioneer walking around a nice part of Dublin says that the CSO's data for the area is wrong. It might be wrong here and there, but it cannot be wrong 31,000 times. However, we need absolute clarity.

According to the data to which I have already referred, there are over 200,000 empty homes in the whole of England. The figure for Ireland is very close to that. There is something hugely amiss if the statistics are correct. The CSO has analysed the reasons for which homes are left empty. I understand that a lot of homes which were buy-to-let are lying empty and that a lot of banks have many empty homes throughout the country. The CSO may not have that data, but it might be able to fine tune the information to give us a figure. Does it have any other interpretation of the huge difference between Britain and Ireland? It is the biggest scandal we have had in this country that so many homes are empty while so many families are sleeping rough and cannot get a roof over their heads. I thank the CSO for bringing clarity to the issue, but I wonder if it can provide us with further analysis.