James Bannon (Longford-Westmeath, Fine Gael)
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368. To ask the Minister for Environment, Community and Local Government if he will provide information by means of the national housing survey or otherwise on the numbers of houses, apartments, and commercial units that are empty in counties Longford and Westmeath; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [15165/14]

Jan O'Sullivan (Limerick City, Labour)
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The purpose of the National Housing Survey (NHS) is to track the extent and condition of unfinished housing developments. The most recent NHS carried out by my Department was in Quarter 3 of 2013.

There were, at the time of the survey, 243 housing units and 40 apartments units recorded as vacant in Longford, and 249 housing units and 35 apartments units recorded as vacant in Westmeath.

The NHS does not survey and record commercial units. All statistics from the NHS are available at

My Department collates and publishes a wide range of housing statistics that inform the preparation and evaluation of housing policy and those data are available on my Department's website

Data on vacancy levels in completed developments are not among that range as these data are collected by the Central Statistics Office (CSO) as part of its census work. The 2011 Census is published on the CSO website and it enumerates the number of vacant properties, broken down by county and city.