Maynooth University in partnership with Dublin City Council, Monday September 8th 2014, launched AIRO, a free-to-use, online monitoring tool that maps housing data for the Dublin region .
The interactive housing monitoring tool allows users to examine and interrogate the geography of Dublin’s housing, in a new and innovative way. It includes over 700 maps revealing changes in the spatial patterns of all private and social housing tenures, including information relating to household composition and state housing supports to private renters.
Councillor Críona Ní Dhálaigh, representing the Lord Mayor, officially launched the new monitoring tool in the Wood Quay Venue, Dublin City Council and commented:
“As chair of Dublin City Council’s Strategic Policy Committee on Housing, I would like to stress the importance and need for good quality, accessible and affordable public housing in the Dublin region to ensure that the city and its environs are a successful place for people to live and work.”
She added: “The mapping of housing data is extremely useful to support the future planning and distribution of housing in Dublin and to support the decision making of central government and the local authorities to meet the scale of housing need that is required in the region.”
The development of the monitoring tool is based on the housing data available from the 2011 Census at Electoral District and Small Area levels and selected census datasets from 2006, 2002 and 1991. It is accompanied by rent supplement recipient datasets from Department of Social Protection. Future modules currently under development will include additional local authority housing related data for the Dublin region, for example in relation to housing standards and local authority mortgages.
Professor Philip Nolan, President of Maynooth University commented at the launch of this innovative resource: “The AIRO website has grown to become an excellent resource for planning and policy making and this housing monitoring tool will play a practical role in addressing some of the key societal challenges we face in Ireland today.”
Dr Dáithí Downey, Dublin City Council, as part of his involvement in the delivery of this housing monitoring tool said: “Housing is complex. The cause and effect of decision-making by individuals and by the state on all aspects of housing is not something that is easily understood by us all. This is why Dublin City Council undertook to develop this monitoring tool using public data. The monitoring tool allows us to visualise lots of accurate data on housing in the Dublin region. This will undoubtedly contribute to the evidence base on housing in Dublin. I’m confident this monitoring tool will quickly become established as a key source of evidence required for informed decision-making by planners, policy-makers, politicians and the public alike on the residential places and spaces where we work and live in Dublin.”
Justin Gleeson, Director of AIRO, Maynooth University commented: “We are delighted to get this toolkit up and running and look forward to a continuing relationship with Dublin City Council, where we will bring together many other public and private sources of housing intelligence. This is the first step on a very exciting project and it is an initiative that is easily transferable to the rest of the country.”