Mr. Mel Reynolds:

It goes back to what Ms Murray O'Connor said earlier about data sets and looking at the information that is available to us. When the CSO does its census it has a standardised process for assessing what is vacant and what is derelict. It also has standard definitions and they are comparable to those in other countries. It uses a standardised set of assumptions so when one is comparing Ireland with the UK or the Netherlands, one is comparing apples with apples. I would go with its definitions of a derelict property and a vacant property. A derelict property is probably one where the ESB has been disconnected, it has been unoccupied for at least two years and it is uninhabitable, whereas a vacant property, and the fair deal scheme incentivises vacancy in many cases, is one that is habitable, it is probably connected, but there is nobody living in it at that time. I would go with the current data sets we have.

The CSO is very good and rigorous. Geodata is very detailed. It is a totally different data set and one cannot compare geodata figures related to vacancy with those of a different jurisdiction because there are different assumptions underpinning them. It would be well worthwhile for the committee to invite somebody from the CSO to go through the assumptions the CSO makes. They are very rigorous. I went through this in 2017 when I was interrogating the figures being produced by the Department for new housing, which were subsequently passed by the then Minister, Mr. Eoghan Murphy, to the CSO to audit. The CSO is rigorous and very good, so I would go with the CSO definitions to keep everything consistent, and then it will be possible to compare us with best practice in other jurisdictions because the census definitions are the same no matter what country one goes to.