Results 241-260 of 9,077 for speaker:James Browne

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

James Browne: My Department provides funding under the suite of Housing Adaptation Grants for Older People and Disabled People, to assist those in private houses to make their accommodation more suitable for their needs. The suite of grants, which include the Housing Adaptation Grant for Disabled People, the Mobility Aids Grant and the Housing Aid for Older People Grant, are funded by my Department with a...

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

James Browne: Delivery data is not available on a constituency basis, however my Department publishes comprehensive programme-level statistics on a quarterly basis on social and affordable housing delivery activity by local authorities and Approved Housing Bodies (AHBs) in each local authority. This data is available to the end of Q1 2025 and is published on the statistics page of my Department’s...

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

James Browne: Statistics in relation to local authority social housing stock are published by the National Oversight and Audit Commission (NOAC) in the annual Local Authority Performance Indicator Report. These reports provide a range of information in relation to social housing stock, including the number of social housing units in local authority ownership at a given time. The most recent report,...

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

James Browne: There are a number of housing estates across the country, including those named in the details supplied, that rely on developer provided water services infrastructure (commonly called DPI) for their water services. These estates are not yet taken in charge and are not connected to the Uisce Éireann public network. Since 1 January 2024, Uisce Éireann has held responsibility for...

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

James Browne: Social housing is a long-term support intended to support households that have continuing, long-term difficulty meeting their own accommodation needs. This is reflected in the underpinning legislation and the Household Means Policy, which provides for applicants’ eligibility to be assessed on their net average income over the previous 12 months from the date of their application. Given...

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Defective Building Materials (30 Sep 2025)

James Browne: I propose to take Questions Nos. 532 and 551 together. The Apartments and Duplex Defects Remediation Scheme (‘Scheme’) is expected to be established shortly after the passage of the legislation (the Apartment and Duplex Defects Remediation Bill), the timeline for which is subject to Oireachtas process. The General Scheme of the Bill will be made available to undergo...

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Defective Building Materials (30 Sep 2025)

James Browne: I propose to take Questions Nos. 533 and 562 together. The Apartments and Duplex Defects Remediation Scheme (‘Scheme’) is expected to be established shortly after the passage of the legislation (the Apartment and Duplex Defects Remediation Bill ('the Bill')), the timeline for which is subject to Oireachtas process. The General Scheme of the Bill will be made available to...

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Energy Policy (30 Sep 2025)

James Browne: The Energy Performance of Buildings Directive (EU/2024/1275) (EPBD) is the European Union’s main legislative instrument aiming to promote the improvement of the energy performance of buildings. The recast Directive, which was adopted by the European Parliament and Council, came into force in May 2024. The Directive requires transposition of the relevant Articles by 29th May 2026. ...

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Fire Service (30 Sep 2025)

James Browne: Capital funding allocations for 2026 will be a matter of discussion between my Department and the Department of Public Expenditure, Infrastructure, Public Service Reform and Digitalisation in the context of the Budget and Estimates process. It is premature to comment on the proposed Fire Service Capital Programme 2026 -2030 prior to confirmation of the final outcome of that process.

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Housing Schemes (30 Sep 2025)

James Browne: I propose to take Questions Nos. 538 and 539 together. My Department provides funding under the suite of Housing Adaptation Grants for Older People and Disabled People, to assist those in private houses to make their accommodation more suitable for their needs. The suite of grants, which include the Housing Adaptation Grant for Disabled People, the Mobility Aids Grant and the Housing Aid...

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Housing Provision (30 Sep 2025)

James Browne: I propose to take Questions Nos. 540 and 541 together. Applications for transfers from social housing tenants are considered solely by the relevant local authority concerned in accordance with that authority’s allocation scheme, which is made by the elected members under section 22 of the Housing (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 2009 in accordance with the Social Housing Allocation...

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Architects Register (30 Sep 2025)

James Browne: Section 18 of the Building Control Act 2007 details prohibition against using the term “architect” unless registered to do so. The registration body in Ireland for this is the Royal Institute of Architects of Ireland. As detailed in the legislation, consequences for a person who practises or carries on business under any name, style or title containing the word...

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Rental Sector (30 Sep 2025)

James Browne: I propose to take Questions Nos. 546 and 593 together. On 10 June 2025, the Government approved policy measures to provide for the enhancement of rent controls and tenancy protections for new tenancies created (i.e. first time tenancy between parties) from 1 March 2026. Legislation is being prepared and will be published later this year to give effect to these policy measures. Further...

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Defective Building Materials (30 Sep 2025)

James Browne: The Remediation of Dwellings Damaged by the Use of Defective Concrete Blocks Act 2022 (the Act) commenced on 22 June 2023 which contains the current grant scheme and the related Regulations were adopted on 29 June 2023. Government approval was granted for the priority drafting of the Remediation of Dwellings Damaged by the Use of Defective Concrete Blocks (Amendment) Bill which will...

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Defective Building Materials (30 Sep 2025)

James Browne: The Remediation of Dwellings Damaged by the Use of Defective Concrete Blocks Act 2022 (the Act) was commenced on 22 June 2023 which contains the enhanced grant scheme and adopted the related Regulations on 29 June 2023. An Appeals Panel has been established to assess appeals made under the Remediation of Dwellings Damaged by the use of Defective Concrete (DCB) Blocks Grant Scheme. The...

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: National Development Plan (30 Sep 2025)

James Browne: The agreed Programme for Government included a commitment to establish a new Towns and Cities Infrastructure Investment Fund to: - invest in infrastructure to acquire land, assemble sites, de-risk sites; - support the development of new transport orientated development towns as necessary; and - to continue and expand URDF (Urban Regeneration and Development Fund) investments in...

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Regeneration Projects (30 Sep 2025)

James Browne: The Ballymun regeneration programme spanned a long number of years, with Departmental funding first arising in 1999. This substantial programme, which comprised 24 projects, is now complete. The overall programme is estimated to have cost approximately €972 million. Funding of €775.3 million was provided via my Department. Largely completed by the end of 2013, the Ballymun...

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Electoral Process (30 Sep 2025)

James Browne: Arrangements for the holding of elections and referendums, including the setting of the polling day, are set out in legislation. Electoral law allows for the taking of the poll at elections and referendums on any day of the week and this flexibility allows all relevant factors to be taken into account at any given time in setting the polling day. Under Section 67 of the Electoral Reform...

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Departmental Expenditure (30 Sep 2025)

James Browne: My Department has several cloud SaaS solutions. Cloud storage is an integrated part of these SaaS solutions and storage is not billed separately. Accordingly, it is not possible to give specific figures on cloud storage solutions.

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Housing Provision (30 Sep 2025)

James Browne: I recently secured an additional €50 million on foot of the National Development Plan discussions to expand the social housing Second-Hand Acquisitions Programme this year, bringing the budget available for the programme to €375 million. I am targeting this additional funding at acquisitions supporting households, particularly larger families with children, to exit long-term...