Results 181-200 of 10,370 for in 'Written Answers' speaker:Darragh O'Brien

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Housing Schemes (11 Apr 2024)

Darragh O'Brien: The Croí Cónaithe (Cities) Scheme is a viability measure designed to support the building of apartments for sale to owner-occupiers that would otherwise not be built, providing a greater range of tenure in our urban centres. To date, two calls for expressions of interest have been undertaken. Five contracts have been signed for the delivery of 582 units in total – 210 in...

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Public Sector Staff (11 Apr 2024)

Darragh O'Brien: The Government has recently approved an increase in the mandatory retirement age for certain members of the uniformed services. Following this, my Department has commenced a review to explore a similar extension to the mandatory retirement age for all firefighters with a view to providing consistency in the uniformed services. Any such change will require a legislative amendment to be...

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Road Projects (11 Apr 2024)

Darragh O'Brien: The objective of the Local Infrastructure Housing Activation Fund (LIHAF) is to provide public off-site infrastructure to relieve critical infrastructure blockages which were frustrating the delivery of housing. This is enabling the accelerated delivery of housing on key development sites in Dublin and in urban areas of high demand. LIHAF was designed to specifically address the issue of...

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Housing Schemes (11 Apr 2024)

Darragh O'Brien: The 2021 Review of the Mortgage to Rent Scheme was published by my Department on 24 January 2022 and is available on my Department's website. Since the publication of this Review, from Quarter 1 of 2022 to the end of Quarter 1 of 2024, a total of 767 Mortgage to Rent applications have been completed. A further 367 applications are being progressed currently. Both the Programme for...

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Local Authorities (11 Apr 2024)

Darragh O'Brien: The Local Government Act 2019 (the Act) was enacted on 31 January 2019 to provide for the transfer of part of the administrative area of Cork County Council to the administrative area of Cork City, and this took place when the new Councils took office after the local elections in late May 2019. Financial responsibility did not transfer to Cork City Council until 1 January 2020 for budgeting...

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Legislative Measures (11 Apr 2024)

Darragh O'Brien: The General Scheme of the Residential Tenancies (Right to Purchase) Bill was approved by Government on 24 October 2023 to provide for a tenant’s ‘first right of refusal’, where a landlord intends to sell a rented dwelling. The Joint Committee on Housing, Local Government and Heritage undertook Pre-Legislative Scrutiny (PLS) of the General Scheme in December 2023 and...

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Housing Schemes (11 Apr 2024)

Darragh O'Brien: Housing for All is providing prospective home-owners with housing options they didn’t have when the plan was published two years ago. These options include Government supports for first-time buyers such as the Local Authority Home Loan, Ready-to-build and the First Home shared equity scheme, all of which are assisting those aspiring to purchase their own home to do so. In this...

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Housing Provision (11 Apr 2024)

Darragh O'Brien: Planning statistics are compiled by each planning authority on an annual basis for collation and publication on my Department’s website. The information requested on the total number of applications and refusals by counties in each of the past three years in both outline permission and planning permission for the period up to and including 2022 is included in the statistics available...

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Housing Policy (11 Apr 2024)

Darragh O'Brien: The Housing Assistance Payment (HAP) and the Rental Accommodation Scheme (RAS) are forms of social housing support, provided by my Department, for people who have a long-term housing need. In order for a household to qualify for HAP, they must first be assessed as eligible for social housing support by their local authority. Any household assessed as eligible for social housing is...

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Housing Provision (11 Apr 2024)

Darragh O'Brien: Home ownership and affordability are a key priority for Government which has targeted the delivery of 54,000 affordable homes between now and 2030, to be facilitated by local authorities, Approved Housing Bodies, the Land Development Agency and via the First Home scheme, a strategic partnership between the State and retail banks. It is anticipated that 36,000 of these homes will be...

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Housing Policy (11 Apr 2024)

Darragh O'Brien: My Department publishes comprehensive programme-level statistics on a quarterly basis on social housing delivery activity by local authorities and Approved Housing Bodies (AHBs) in each local authority area. This data is available to the end of 2023 and is published on the statistics' page of my Department’s website at the following link:...

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Housing Provision (10 Apr 2024)

Darragh O'Brien: The figures provided in reply to Parliamentary Question no. 656 of 20 March 2024 account for all properties secured under Leasing that are supported under the Social Housing Current Expenditure Programme (SHCEP). Of the total figure of 12,398 properties supported by SHCEP at the end of Q3 2023, 3,911 properties are secured under payment and availability agreements. SHCEP, in addition to...

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Energy Conservation (10 Apr 2024)

Darragh O'Brien: I propose to take Questions Nos. 72 and 75 together. In 2021 a new holistic approach was applied to the Energy Efficient Retrofit Programme (EERP), designed around the Programme for Government's commitment led by the Department for the Environment, Climate and Communications that calls for the 'retrofit' of 500,000 homes to a B2 (BER)/Cost Optimal Equivalent standard by 2030, of which,...

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Housing Provision (10 Apr 2024)

Darragh O'Brien: Housing for All is the Government’s plan to increase the supply of housing to an average of 33,000 per year over the next decade. This includes the delivery of 90,000 social homes, 36,000 affordable purchase homes and 18,000 cost rental homes. Housing for All is supported by an investment package of over €4bn per annum, through an overall combination of €12bn in direct...

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Legislative Programme (10 Apr 2024)

Darragh O'Brien: The Government is committed under Housing for All to developing a roadmap to implement minimum Building Energy Rating (BER) standards, where feasible, for the private rental sector. This action is aimed at both improving the quality of housing stock available to rent and contributing to meeting our overall national climate targets in relation to emissions reduction. It will increase energy...

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Regeneration Projects (10 Apr 2024)

Darragh O'Brien: The National Regeneration Programme targets the country’s most disadvantaged communities; those defined by the most extreme social exclusion, unemployment and anti-social behaviour. My Department supports an ambitious programme of regeneration projects which seek to address the causes of disadvantage in these estates through a holistic programme of physical, social and economic...

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Defective Building Materials (10 Apr 2024)

Darragh O'Brien: I propose to take Questions Nos. 78 to 83, inclusive, and 85 to 89, inclusive, together. I commenced the Remediation of Dwellings Damaged by the Use of Defective Concrete Blocks Act 2022 (the Act) on 22 June 2023 which contains the enhanced grant scheme and adopted the related Regulations on 29 June 2023. I fully acknowledge the difficulties that homeowners are facing and the Government...

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Emergency Accommodation (10 Apr 2024)

Darragh O'Brien: My Department's role in relation to homelessness involves the provision of a national framework of policy, legislation and funding to underpin the role of housing authorities in addressing homelessness at local level. Statutory responsibility in relation to the provision of homeless services rests with individual housing authorities. To assist in ensuring that homeless services provided...

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Housing Policy (10 Apr 2024)

Darragh O'Brien: It is open to any person over 18 years of age to apply for social housing support at any stage, subject to meeting the eligibility and need criteria at the point at which they apply. Applications for social housing support are assessed by the relevant local authority, in accordance with the eligibility and need criteria set down in section 20 of the Housing (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act...

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Development Contributions (9 Apr 2024)

Darragh O'Brien: I propose to take Questions Nos. 591, 592, 594, 595, 596, 606, 607, 614, 625, 627, 659, 665, 711, 714 and 724 together. On 25 April 2023, the Government approved additional measures under the Housing for All Action Plan to incentivise the activation of increased housing supply and help reduce housing construction costs, including the introduction of temporary time-limited arrangements for the...