Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Tuesday, 15 October 2024

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government

Analysis of Private Rental Sector Discrepancies: Discussion (Resumed)

3:00 pm

Mr. Cormac Halpin:

Yes. The next census will be in 2027. We have recently gone through a consultation process that we go through before every census, whereby we invite submissions from members of the public and interested stakeholders on what they would like to see on the next census form. I refer to new questions, revisions to existing questions, and questions to be dropped. As part of this, the questions related to housing would have been considered by a group called the census advisory group, which comprises key stakeholders and key data users, primarily from across government but also from other sectors that use data. The group considered the question we are talking about, on the nature of occupancy, and recommended that the current version of it be retained in 2027. Therefore, it will not change for the next census.

The use of administrative data as part of the census is increasing. It was introduced in 2022 to improve the quality of the census, reduce the rate of non-response where it happens and validate the quality of census data. It may be possible to use administrative data in 2027 to explore the possibility of producing more of the type of information in question. We are still two and a half years out from the next census, so I do not want to pre-empt what will happen in that regard; however, we can say with some certainty that administrative data are here to stay. That is good from a data-quality perspective because it brings richness and surety to the census data. We have taken note of what the committee has reflected on regarding the degree of nuance. We will see what is possible as regards the use of administrative data but the census is two and a half years away and a lot of work has to happen between now and then. We are very conscious of the data required not just by the committee but also by other data stakeholders in this space.

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