Mr. Ronnie Downes:

There was a question on the extent to which we can be satisfied that we are identifying trends that might be important from performance information in areas such as housing that are economically and socially important. As I said in my opening remarks, the performance report is just one element of a broader package. It is almost the tip of the iceberg in the type and nature of the information available to policymakers to keep track of what is happening and to inform ongoing policy developments. In this report, we are trying to focus on some of the key high level indicators. As became clear in the discussion earlier with Deputy Mairéad Farrell, there might be scope for separating things out a bit more or clarifying to zero in on those indicators that are of most relevance, certainly in this forum and in other sectoral committees. Other analytical and evidential tools are available to policymakers in the civil and public service. These include spending reviews. Our Department has produced a series of spending reviews that focus on different aspects of the housing market and the relative efficiency and impact, for example of rental and leasing models versus purchase models. Those all form part of that corpus of analytical information that can inform policymaking. However, as we know from recent times, developments happen all the time that we need to keep on top of and aware of.