Results 3,421-3,440 of 7,024 for speaker:Willie Penrose

Written Answers — Rental Accommodation Scheme: Rental Accommodation Scheme (1 Jun 2011)

Willie Penrose: One of the main features of the Rental Accommodation Scheme (RAS) is that local authorities, in sourcing accommodation for households, co-operate with the private and voluntary sector and enter into contractual arrangements to secure medium to long-term availability of rented accommodation. It is a matter for each local authority to negotiate appropriate contracts to suit their needs. Under...

Written Answers — Rented Accommodation: Rented Accommodation (1 Jun 2011)

Willie Penrose: Minimum standards for rental accommodation are prescribed in the Housing (Standards for Rented Houses) Regulations 2008, made under section 18 of the Housing (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 1992. These Regulations were further amended by the Housing (Standards for Rented Houses)(Amendment) Regulations 2009 which expanded the definition of 'a proper state of structural repair' to allow for all...

Ministers and Secretaries (Amendment) Bill 2011: Second Stage (Resumed) (1 Jun 2011)

Willie Penrose: The Deputy is mixing us up with his party.

Ministers and Secretaries (Amendment) Bill 2011: Second Stage (Resumed) (1 Jun 2011)

Willie Penrose: He should.

Written Answers — Local Authority Housing: Local Authority Housing (31 May 2011)

Willie Penrose: Funding for one-off rural dwellings is included within the general allocation for the provision of local authority housing within each housing authority's social housing investment programme. There is no separate provision for one-off rural housing.

Written Answers — Social and Affordable Housing: Social and Affordable Housing (31 May 2011)

Willie Penrose: I refer to the response to Question No. 246 of 24 May last. My Department will liaise with the Irish Naturalisation and Immigration Service to review the guidance to local authorities on these issues. The review will clarify the policy in relation to persons who have already been granted long-term residency by INIS.

Written Answers — Planning Issues: Planning Issues (31 May 2011)

Willie Penrose: I propose to take Questions Nos. 224 and 232 together. An Bord Pleanála has a statutory objective to determine appeals and referrals within 18 weeks. The compliance rate with the statutory objective time period for normal planning appeals stood at 82% at the end of April 2011. The board operates a priority system for planning appeals. The priority system seeks to ensure that cases...

Written Answers — Local Authority Housing: Local Authority Housing (31 May 2011)

Willie Penrose: The incremental purchase scheme, which will replace the tenant purchase scheme for existing local authority housing, will be introduced following the enactment of primary legislation. It is not possible at this stage to specify the terms of the new scheme but the intention is that it will be modelled on the incremental purchase scheme introduced in June 2010 for newly built social housing....

Written Answers — Alternative Energy Projects: Alternative Energy Projects (31 May 2011)

Willie Penrose: The Planning and Development Regulations 2001 to 2008 deal with the issue of wind turbines with vertical axis blades. The 2001 regulations set out the development thresholds for wind turbines which require an Environmental Impact Assessment. The 2007 regulations provide exemptions from planning permission requirements in respect of certain classes of micro-renewable technologies for...

Written Answers — Planning Issues: Planning Issues (31 May 2011)

Willie Penrose: Planning legislation does not place restrictions on the height of hedges or trees nor does it make any particular provision for recognition of a right to light or remedy from any other nuisance which may be caused by trees in an urban residential area. Complaints relating to matters such as trees or shrubs overhanging a property are normally addressed, where necessary, under civil law...

Written Answers — Planning Issues: Planning Issues (31 May 2011)

Willie Penrose: Under Articles 35(1)(a) and 35(1)(b) of the Planning and Development Regulations 2001 to 2011, where a planning authority deems that further information received by it in connection with a planning application contains significant additional data, it must require the applicant to erect a site notice and publish a notice in an approved newspaper publicising the fact of the further information...

Written Answers — Local Authority Housing: Local Authority Housing (31 May 2011)

Willie Penrose: All rental properties being let for the first time after 1 February 2009 have to comply with the minimum standards regulations for the rental sector, including local authority units, and no new bedsits can be rented. However, in so far as existing accommodation is concerned, a period of four years to 31 January 2013 has been allowed for landlords, including local authorities, to undertake...

Written Answers — Planning Issues: Planning Issues (26 May 2011)

Willie Penrose: Section 42 of the Planning and Development Act 2000 was amended by section 28 of the Planning and Development (Amendment) Act 2010. While the provision remains whereby an extension of permission is automatically given on application in a case where substantial works have been carried out within the original duration (subject only to the condition that an application complying with the...

Written Answers — Tribunals of Inquiry: Tribunals of Inquiry (25 May 2011)

Willie Penrose: I am advised by the Tribunal of Inquiry into Certain Planning Matters and Payments that it expects to complete its final report within the coming months, at which time the report will then be submitted to the Oireachtas for its consideration and publication.

Written Answers — Urban Renewal Schemes: Urban Renewal Schemes (25 May 2011)

Willie Penrose: My Department is aware of one regeneration project, Ballymun regeneration, where higher than acceptable levels of pyrite have been discovered at three locations. These include the Ballymun Central Youth Facility, a new 124-unit apartment complex at Sillogue 4 and completed and tenanted units at Poppintree 5. Following the discovery of elevated levels of pyrite in the hardcore fill for the...

Written Answers — Local Authority Charges: Local Authority Charges (25 May 2011)

Willie Penrose: The Government decided in 2009 to broaden the revenue base of local authorities by introducing a charge on all non-principal private residences. The charge is payable by the owners of private rented accommodation, holiday homes and any other residential property that is not the owner's sole or main residence. The Local Government (Charges) Act 2009, which sets out the detail of the charge,...

Written Answers — Communications Masts: Communications Masts (25 May 2011)

Willie Penrose: In general, planning permission must be obtained for the erection of an antenna support structure or mast. Under Article 6 and Schedule 2 of the Planning and Development Regulations 2001, certain classes of development carried out by a statutory undertaker authorised to provide a telecommunications service are, subject to specified conditions, exempted development for the purposes of the...

Written Answers — Planning Issues: Planning Issues (24 May 2011)

Willie Penrose: Planning permission was granted on 5 May 2011 for a mixed use development with 253 residential units, offices, retail units, restaurants, community sports facilities and a cinema at this location. It is envisaged that some 139 of the residential units will be used for social housing with a significant number being set aside as replacement units for current residents. This planning decision...

Written Answers — Unfinished Housing Developments: Unfinished Housing Developments (24 May 2011)

Willie Penrose: Sections 34(4)(g) and 180(2)(b) of the Planning and Development Act 2000, as amended, enable planning authorities to attach conditions to grants of planning permission for development requiring the provision of financial securities sufficient to safeguard the satisfactory completion of essential infrastructure and amenities in those developments, and, if a development is not subsequently...

Written Answers — Special Housing Needs: Special Housing Needs (24 May 2011)

Willie Penrose: I refer to the reply to Question No. 130 of 18 May, 2011. It is a matter for the local authority concerned to ensure that housing bodies manage and maintain capital funded projects in accordance with the terms of the capital funding schemes. My Department will ask Kildare County Council to review the matters raised and report on compliance, by the housing body in question, with the terms and...