Our problems show the government is driving blind

Last year, this newspaper’s columnist Stephen Kinsella branded the housing statistics as ‘fake news’. He was not alone. Other academics and analysts had also questioned the reliability of basing the housing figures on the number of new connections to the ESB network.

It included the reconnection of homes that were vacant for over two years, but were now being brought back into use.

The Central Statistics Office has now confirmed that this scepticism ...