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

The Department in its previous form, as the Department with responsibility for the environment, used to produce an annual book of statistics. It was normally produced at the very end of the year or the start of the subsequent year. It provided a great deal of statistical data on outputs from the Department and from local authorities. I highly recommend that as a practice that could be returned to, because it was really useful.

One of the frustrations faced by all Deputies on the committee is that when we look for data on outputs from local authorities in respect of policies funded and driven by the Department, we are told the Department does not collate that information. For example, I wanted to know the total number of social housing units that were wheelchair accessible, but the Department does not keep that information. Interestingly, neither do the local authorities.