Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 4 December 2025
346. Deputy Ken O'Flynn asked the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage the steps his Department has taken since 2022 to secure more granular productivity data to support national housing targets. [68830/25]
Amharc ar fhreagra347. Deputy Ken O'Flynn asked the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage if his Department has assessed the budgetary and value-for-money implications of the absence of residential specific productivity data within the national construction sector, and if he will outline any measures taken to ensure capital allocations for housing delivery are supported by reliable productivity metrics. [68831/25]
Amharc ar fhreagra348. Deputy Ken O'Flynn asked the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage if his Department will support the development of new data collection methods within the CSO to measure labour and capital productivity in residential construction separately from other construction activity, and if he will outline what steps, consultations or technical workstreams have been undertaken since 2022 to improve productivity measurement in the construction sector. [68832/25]
Amharc ar fhreagraThe Central Statistics Office produces annual and quarterly information on productivity in economic sectors of the Irish Economy, including on productivity in the construction sector. However, I understand that the underlying data sources do not allow for the distinction between residential and other forms of construction.
My Department is involved in regular collaboration with the Central Statistics Office and the Department of Enterprise, Tourism and Employment, alongside other government departments, in developing indicators relating to housing data. One such recent area of collaboration is in relation to developing insights on the scale and variance of use of Modern Methods of Construction for new residential dwellings.
A robust, reliable measure of residential construction activity would be beneficial. Representatives of my Department and the Central Statistics Office have very recently discussed the potential deployment of residential construction productivity indicators with representatives of the Central Statistics Office, however I understand that there are challenges, particularly the ongoing access to data that would be required to generate an index of activity. I acknowledge that the Central Statistics Office is best placed to adjudicate between the many competing demands for additional statistical series.
As the Central Statistics Office operates under the aegis of the Taoiseach, questions regarding the Central Statistics Office’s plans in this area are best directed to the Taoiseach’s Department.
