26/04/2017

Housing Minister Accused Of Regurgitating Misleading Housing Figures

Minister for Housing Simon Coveney has been accused of continuing to regurgitate misleading figures in relation to the number of new houses that are being built every year.

Sinn Féin Housing spokesperson Eoin Ó Broin TD, who made the accusation, said: "Minister Coveney's letter confirms that neither the Minister nor his Department know how many new houses are being built every year. The use of ESB connection data as a basis for his figures is wholly unreliable and many industry experts and academics have stated this. 

"In order to bump up his figures, the Minister is deliberately mixing the number of newly built homes with existing stock that has been returned to use. If Minister Coveney cannot be trusted to provide reliable data on housing, how can he be trusted to tackle the ever worsening housing and homelessness crisis?

"The Minister has failed to objectively take on board the criticism of the inaccuracies associated with his department's preferred data source for measuring new builds and is arrogantly maintaining the view that the department does not need to change its counting method.

"We urgently need to see accurate figures in order to assess and deal with the full scale of the housing crisis in this state. The Minister's intransigence on his flawed figures is unhelpful."

(MH/CD)

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