Eoghan Murphy (Dublin Bay South, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

In response to Deputy Casey's question on the quarterly reporting we report on the monthly numbers. Eoin O'Sullivan's analysis is not ours. He includes other figures such as direct provision and everything else. All other matters that we report on in respect of housing are quarterly. Most organisations report quarterly because that allows them to better understand trends, analysis and data and when they report on that quarter they do not do it a week or two after that quarter has ended, they have taken a month or month and a half to analyse the information and present it in the right way. That is the best way to do it to get accurate information from the people who have prepared the report.

On the gathering of data, there is guidance for that. We are reviewing it. We will wait until we get the survey back to see exactly what is happening on how information is being collated. A body of work needs to be done on the pathway accommodation and support system, PASS to see what information it is bringing into the system when we put the numbers into it. That is what we are trying to do. Both reports speak to the necessity of improving the information we have and that means gathering it in a better way before we publish it and the analysis of it.

I do not dispute Deputy Ellis's position on the economics of HAP when I look at the numbers on how we are using taxpayers' money but we cannot consider this just from an economic point of view, we have to consider it from a social need point of view too and we do. We are building more houses. The ambition of Rebuilding Ireland and Project Ireland 2040 is to build a stock of social housing homes every year that is a percentage of the total delivery of homes in the private sector such that no matter what happens in the future that safety net is there for the most vulnerable people in our society. That is the absolute aim under Rebuilding Ireland. Until we have more homes built we will continue to have an over-reliance on the private rental sector.