Shane Cassells (Meath West, Fianna Fail)
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646. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government his views on whether the population statistics provided by the Central Statistics Office are accurate; and the reason he did not accept them in the preparation of the national planning framework in view of the fact that the statistics used are now shown to have major discrepancies. [39915/19]

Eoghan Murphy (Dublin Bay South, Fine Gael)
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As an innovative, world-class national statistical information agency, the Central Statistics Office (CSO) collects, compiles, analyses and disseminates statistical data in relation to the economic and social life of the country.

The preparation of the National Planning Framework (NPF) was undertaken with the benefit of the latest Central Statistics Office (CSO) Census of Population data, from Census 2016.  The CSO Census data published in 2016 and 2017 formed the baseline on which the detailed demographic and econometric projections undertaken by the Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI) for the purposes of the NPF, were made.

The population statistics provided by the CSO were therefore fully accepted in the preparation of the NPF.

The basis on which it is suggested that there are discrepancies in the statistics used in the preparation of the National Planning Framework is unclear.  It remains the case that the long-term projections set out in the NPF are the best estimate of population change over the period to 2040.