Mr. Michael McCarthy:

I thank the Deputy. I share his frustration on the voids issue. We had this discussion earlier. I agree with the Deputy's definition of a void, which is a property that has been vacant for a long time and has fallen out of stock. That is my 100% definition of a void. In a previous incarnation, we had a number of issues in the electoral area that I represented on a local authority at one stage. It went on for years. There was no doubt that in the local community one could see the structure, which had not changed in appearance bar its deterioration. There was lost revenue in terms of the differential rent that should have been collected and a number of tenants or a family were not being housed because of that inertia. It is particularly good work on the part of NOAC that we have concentrated on the voids issue. The Deputy knows my definition of a void. The figure has reduced over a period of years from 3.8% to 2.8%. That is not the silver bullet but at least it is heading in the right direction. I want to give a commitment regarding how we progress that work. We will continue in our data collection to make it easily discernible to other people who are in that space to build a sufficient bank of knowledge on that topic in an objective and accurate manner.

The responses to the parliamentary questions tabled to the Departments of Communication, Climate Action and Environment and Housing, Planning and Local Government are an issue. Again I was that soldier. It can be utterly frustrating. That is a point I will take on board in how we tweak the performance indicators. As we go forward, the circumstances will change, some issues will become topical and others will become less topical but we are going to tweak and add the performance indicators as we make that journey.

NOAC is here to do the job it has to do. I am particularly encouraged to see somebody of Deputy Ó Broin's standing as both as a researcher and writer but also as a Deputy who has a very strong interest in building that data reflect what we are doing. We are available to him in that capacity in any way that can be constructive and that can add to the outcomes in building the data. We will get that note to the secretariat on where we are at with the 2018 report so that we can get it to the Oireachtas in a more timely fashion. If one sees a report dated from two years ago, circumstances will have changed in the meantime and there will have been developments. It is in all our interests to be more timely.