Billy Timmins (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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Question 14: To ask the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government the number of vacant houses here; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [16044/10]

Ciarán Cuffe (Dún Laoghaire, Green Party)
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The mismatch between the collapse in demand for housing and the less rapid slowing of construction output has led to a situation in which there is now a significant overhang of vacant, unsold property. However, as all housing markets, at whatever point in the market cycle they may be, will have some level of vacancy, it is important to differentiate between total vacant stock and the excess of vacant stock over normal levels.

The latter provides a much clearer picture of the quantity of housing that is available for occupation. This is a more important consideration from the point of view of trying, for example, to match oversupply of housing with rising social housing need.

Estimates of the overhang of excess stock range from around 35,000 at the low end to 170,000 at the upper end. The Department's estimate of between 122,000 and 147,000 units nationally is an estimate of the "excess" stock of vacant units over what would be the "normal" level. The report in which this estimate is contained, the Construction Industry Review and Outlook 2009–2011, also provides an estimate for the total stock of empty dwellings at June 2009 of between 228,000 and 253,000, depending on the assumptions used.

The recent study by the National Institute for Regional and Spatial Analysis (NIRSA) uses a similar methodology to the one used in the preparation of the Construction Industry Review and Outlook, to reach a figure of over 300,000 vacant units, although this also includes abandoned properties. Like our estimate of between 228,000 – 253,000 for the total overhang, the NIRSA figures include both the "normal" vacancy level and the "excess" vacancy over normal levels.