Tommy Broughan (Dublin Bay North, Independent)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

1816. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government if he will report on the method of measuring residential unit building completions; the improvements that will be made to the accuracy of recording the number of new residential units for each quarter in 2018; his views on the latest house completion statistics for 2015, 2016 and 2017; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [1589/18]

Eoghan Murphy (Dublin Bay South, Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

ESB Connections were used for many years as a proxy for housing completions.  It is recognised that the ESB connections data include reconnections of properties vacant for two years or more and while the bringing back into use of vacant properties of this kind is welcome in terms of making efficient use of the overall housing stock, it is important that an improved breakdown is generated in relation to the different elements within the overall data.

Accordingly, my Department is collaborating with the ESB Networks and the Central Statistics Office to obtain additional, more granular data from their datasets and I expect that we will begin to see improved data on foot of this as we progress further into 2018.  In the interim, my Department has continued to publish the existing dataset on ESB connections, qualified along the lines above, and data up to end 2017 is now available on the Department's website at the following address:

.

This shows the increasing trend in connections in recent years, from 12,666 in 2015, rising to 14,932 in 2016 and rising further to 19,271 in 2017.