Catherine Connolly (Galway West, Independent)
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125. To ask the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth if he will provide details of the research commissioned by his Department, and being carried out by the ESRI, into the housing situation of children; when he expects to receive and publish the final report; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [50703/22]

Roderic O'Gorman (Dublin West, Green Party)
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Given the very significant challenges facing the housing system in Ireland, the Research and Evaluation Unit (REU) in my Department instigated a project to explore children’s experiences of housing and the consequences of housing issues for child development. This research, which is being conducted under the aegis of the Department’s partnership with the Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI), will use data gathered through the Growing up in Ireland (GUI) study to explore how different types of accommodation tenure affect outcomes for children. Drawing on data from the ‘08 Cohort of the GUI study (these children were recruited into the study at 9 months and are now aged about 14), the study will explore the housing conditions faced by children in early and middle childhood, and the implications of these housing experiences for their cognitive, socio-emotional and health outcomes.

I expect this paper to also explore measures of housing quality and the effects of moving accommodation for children, and to pay particular attention to how tenure type and housing quality affect children from different socio-economic groups, ethnic backgrounds and family types. Because of the longitudinal nature of the GUI data, the paper will be able to track how housing situations of children change over time and the ways in which these changes interact with the child development. It is because of our commitment to children’s research and the state’s long-standing investment in GUI that this unique project is possible.

The paper is due at the end of November and I am very much looking forward to receiving it and interrogating its findings. I hope to launch it shortly after that date.