Darragh O'Brien (Dublin Fingal, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I appreciate Deputy O'Callaghan's opening comments. First, there is no question about the CSO data, which as we see it, tally very much with the returns we are getting around the country on housing completions. He raised a point about methodology. What is used in the future will be for the CSO to decide itself independently of me in terms of how it moves forward. I am not putting this in a confrontational way, but the debate on the issue has been somewhat skewed post the first year of Housing for All. People do not have to agree with everything in Housing for All. They can criticise and have a different plan and that is fine too but I am very confident with the veracity of the data that we have, which tally with what we see in the returns we get across the local authorities. Any change in the methodology or the presentation of the data would be a matter for the CSO itself. We review all data sets that come in, including the private firm to which Deputy O'Callaghan and others referred to.