Eoin Ó Broin (Dublin Mid West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I do not accept that. There are two different categories. One is long-term voids that were out of stock for a long period and, because the Department was bringing them back in, it can legitimately count them as an addition to stock. There is another category where, for example, at the start of 2017 a property had a lifetime tenant and that tenant then moved out. The Minister is correct that the level of refurbishment that is required is significantly in excess of a standard re-let but the work could be done in three or four months and it is then re-let. If the property had a tenant at the start of 2017, if it was twice the cost to do the refurb and if the property is re-let in three months, that cannot be counted as a new unit of stock. There is a fundamental difference.