Tommy Broughan (Dublin North East, Labour)
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Question 926: To ask the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government the number of house completions each year since 2002 to date in 2008; the estimate of the number of house completions for 2009 and 2010; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [29027/08]

Michael Finneran (Roscommon-South Leitrim, Fianna Fail)
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Data on the number of house completions, including private, social and affordable housing, for each year from 2002 to 2007, are set out in my Department's Annual and Quarterly Housing Statistics Bulletins, copies of which are available in the Oireachtas Library and on my Department's website at www.environ.ie. Provisional data indicate that there were some 23,569 completions in the first five months of 2008.

On the basis of population forecasts prepared for my Department, it has been estimated that some 600,000 additional homes may be required over the nine-year period up to 2015, and my Department's housing policy statement, Delivering Homes Sustaining Communities, was predicated on demand of that order of magnitude. While my Department does not engage in long term forecasts of housing supply, it commissions an annual independent review and outlook report on the construction industry and, as part of this, an estimate of housing output in the following year is prepared. This year's report, containing an estimate of housing output in 2009, is currently being prepared and will be published in the Autumn.