Results 221-240 of 9,077 for speaker:James Browne

Select Committee on Housing, Local Government and Heritage: Estimates for Public Services 2025
Vote 34 - Housing, Local Government and Heritage (Further Revised) (2 Oct 2025)

James Browne: Regarding defects, in terms of defective concrete blocks-----

Select Committee on Housing, Local Government and Heritage: Estimates for Public Services 2025
Vote 34 - Housing, Local Government and Heritage (Further Revised) (2 Oct 2025)

James Browne: Is it specifically about the uplift or for the defective concrete blocks?

Select Committee on Housing, Local Government and Heritage: Estimates for Public Services 2025
Vote 34 - Housing, Local Government and Heritage (Further Revised) (2 Oct 2025)

James Browne: In terms of widening the-----

Select Committee on Housing, Local Government and Heritage: Estimates for Public Services 2025
Vote 34 - Housing, Local Government and Heritage (Further Revised) (2 Oct 2025)

James Browne: There is no intention to widen it outside of those who are currently entitled to it. The legislation will be going to pre-legislative scrutiny soon. I will talk to Deputy Ó Broin to see if he is satisfied with it. I do not want to anticipate. The uplift is in there and I am anxious to get that done as quickly as possible. We are looking at tweaks to the scheme too but not widening...

Select Committee on Housing, Local Government and Heritage: Estimates for Public Services 2025
Vote 34 - Housing, Local Government and Heritage (Further Revised) (2 Oct 2025)

James Browne: Regarding the waiver, I will need to talk to the Cathaoirleach of the committee as well.

Select Committee on Housing, Local Government and Heritage: Estimates for Public Services 2025
Vote 34 - Housing, Local Government and Heritage (Further Revised) (2 Oct 2025)

James Browne: I think everybody would be motivated to do it as quickly as possible anyway. I intend to have that done quite quickly. There are one or two little niche areas and I am meeting the Attorney General on Friday afternoon to iron them out.

Select Committee on Housing, Local Government and Heritage: Estimates for Public Services 2025
Vote 34 - Housing, Local Government and Heritage (Further Revised) (2 Oct 2025)

James Browne: I would expect that it would come this month. My intention was to have it by now, to be honest, but there are one or two small technical areas that come up that are giving legal headaches and that is why I called a meeting with the Attorney General for Friday afternoon to actually get it bottomed out. The retrospective aspect would be in terms of the actual bills incurred. That is how it...

Select Committee on Housing, Local Government and Heritage: Estimates for Public Services 2025
Vote 34 - Housing, Local Government and Heritage (Further Revised) (2 Oct 2025)

James Browne: No, if a person has already spent the money, it is backdated to March. We need to bottom out exactly what that will be. We can have that specific discussion as we get closer to it.

Select Committee on Housing, Local Government and Heritage: Estimates for Public Services 2025
Vote 34 - Housing, Local Government and Heritage (Further Revised) (2 Oct 2025)

James Browne: Regarding developer-led infrastructure around water and wastewater, we are having a lot of engagement with Uisce Éireann and the EPA. There are complications with it. Any proposals would need to be of a high standard because ultimately they would have to be taken over by Uisce Éireann, so they would have to meet its standards. We want to make sure those standards are clear for...

Select Committee on Housing, Local Government and Heritage: Estimates for Public Services 2025
Vote 34 - Housing, Local Government and Heritage (Further Revised) (2 Oct 2025)

James Browne: There seem to be differing views on timber frames and what can be used. I was in Copenhagen for a couple of days due an event relating to the Danish Presidency. The housing crisis is now right across Europe. The minister for housing in Denmark highlighted that there is a very significant difference even between Stockholm and Copenhagen when it comes to how high apartments can be. This...

Select Committee on Housing, Local Government and Heritage: Estimates for Public Services 2025
Vote 34 - Housing, Local Government and Heritage (Further Revised) (2 Oct 2025)

James Browne: Absolutely. I appreciate that.

Select Committee on Housing, Local Government and Heritage: Estimates for Public Services 2025
Vote 34 - Housing, Local Government and Heritage (Further Revised) (2 Oct 2025)

James Browne: The total affordable purchase and vacancy figure is 4,100 units and the total for cost rental is 2,300 units. That gets us to the 6,400 units.

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Building Regulations (2 Oct 2025)

James Browne: The design and construction of buildings is regulated under the Building Control Acts in order to ensure the safety, health and welfare of people within the built environment. The Acts provide for the making of Building Regulations, Building Control Regulations and also set out the legislative basis for the system of enforcement. The Building Control Regulations provide for matters of...

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Homeless Persons Supports (2 Oct 2025)

James Browne: I propose to take Questions Nos. 318 and 319 together. 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 local authorities in addressing homelessness at local level. Statutory responsibility in relation to the provision of accommodation and related services for homeless persons...

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Departmental Schemes (2 Oct 2025)

James Browne: The Croí Cónaithe (Cities) Scheme supports the building of apartments in urban cores for sale to owner-occupiers. The Scheme aims to activate the supply of units which otherwise would not be delivered due to viability challenges by providing funding support to bridge the current "Viability Gap" between the delivery cost of building apartments and the market sale price (where the...

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Housing Schemes (2 Oct 2025)

James Browne: The Housing Assistance Payment (HAP) is a form of social housing support available for people who have a long-term housing need. Any household assessed as eligible for social housing is immediately eligible for HAP. Under HAP, a tenant sources their own accommodation in the private rented market. The accommodation sourced by tenants should be within the prescribed maximum HAP rent limits,...

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Ethics in Public Office (2 Oct 2025)

James Browne: Section 237A of the Local Government Act 2001 (as amended) provides that the Minister shall make regulations in relation to the ‘dealings’ of local authorities with members of the Houses of the Oireachtas which must include provisions in relation to correspondence with members of the Oireachtas by local authorities. These Regulations are contained in S.I. 274 of 2003...

United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization Convention on the Protection of the Underwater Cultural Heritage: Motion (1 Oct 2025)

James Browne: I move: That Dáil Éireann: (1) approves the terms of the UNESCO Convention on the Protection of the Underwater Cultural Heritage done at Paris on the 6th November, 2001, a copy of which was laid before Dáil Éireann on 13th August, 2025, (2) approves the making of a Declaration under Article 28 of the said Convention that the Rules of the Annex to the Convention will...

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Postal Voting (1 Oct 2025)

James Browne: Electoral law provides for postal voting for a number of different categories of people:whole-time members of the Defence Forces,members of An Garda Síochána,Irish diplomats serving abroad and their spouses/civil partners,electors living at home who are unable to go in person to vote because of illness or a disability,electors whose occupation, service or employment makes it likely...

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Defective Building Materials (1 Oct 2025)

James Browne: My Department keeps costs relating to the DCB Scheme under continuous review. Following updated cost reports from the Society of Chartered Surveyors Ireland (SCSI) and advice from the Expert Group established to consider the matter, a further increase from the original grant rates set down in the Remediation of Dwellings Damaged by the Use of Defective Concrete Blocks Act 2022 (the Act),...