Róisín Shortall (Dublin North West, Labour)
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Question 460: To ask the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government if, in formulating housing policy, he has undertaken an inventory of the number and profile of empty dwellings that are available for occupation in each local authority area; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [27269/09]

Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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Question 502: To ask the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government the extent to which an audit of all housing units has been undertaken with a view to determining the extent of new or second hand vacant properties available here on a county basis; the number of construction sites closed down due to the economic situation; the action he has taken to address the needs of the local authority housing waiting lists from such housing stock; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [28013/09]

Michael Finneran (Roscommon-South Leitrim, Fianna Fail)
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I propose to take Question Nos. 460 and 502 together.

The Central Statistics Office (CSO) collects data on vacant properties during the Census as this is the most effective and cost efficient way to audit all housing units nationwide. The 2006 Census found that there were 216,533 unoccupied houses and apartments nationally. The number of vacant properties, broken down by county, is available on the CSO website. Information from the Census provides a crucially important input for policy development across many areas of my Department's brief, including housing policy.

While a significant number of housing units that are vacant may not necessarily be available for sale or alternative use (for example, there are an estimated 50,000 holiday homes), given weaker sentiment in the housing market, combined with a number of years of very strong supply, my Department has been conscious for some time of a growing overhang in the market of housing units for sale.

In order to align economic and social objectives and to make effective use of properties that may be available for re-deployment for social housing purposes, my Department has introduced a number of initiatives of relevance. In the first instance, the Rental Accommodation Scheme (RAS), which was introduced in 2004, is designed to cater for the long term housing needs of rent supplement households. The core objectives of the RAS are to reform the approach towards providing accommodation within the private rented sector for long-term dependents on rent supplement and to enhance the response of housing authorities to meeting long-term housing need. One of the main features of the scheme is that housing authorities, in sourcing accommodation for these households, make use of the private and voluntary sector and enter into contractual arrangements to secure medium to long-term availability of rented accommodation.

To supplement this scheme, I have introduced two additional initiatives in recent months, which will make further use of vacant stock and assist authorities in meeting housing needs. Firstly, in February 2009, I introduced new arrangements for the delivery of social housing under which housing authorities may enter into long term leases of private dwellings for periods of between 10 and 20 years, taking advantage of the extent of available property in the market and at the same time providing a more efficient and effective use of public resources in meeting housing needs. Secondly, my Department has advised housing authorities that they can consider transferring unsold affordable housing stock to both the leasing scheme and the RAS, where appropriate.

Data in relation to the number of construction site closures are not held by my Department.