Results 5,921-5,940 of 25,799 for speaker:Darragh O'Brien

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Septic Tanks (30 Jan 2024)

Darragh O'Brien: I propose to take Questions Nos. 332 and 358 together. In November 2023, I announced substantial improvements to the terms and conditions of all three Domestic Waste Water Treatment System (DWWTS) grants available to households. At the time my Department also advised all local authorities of the changes made which are an increase of the grant amount available to €12,000 from...

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Electoral Process (30 Jan 2024)

Darragh O'Brien: The polls for European Parliament and Local elections in Ireland are typically taken on the same day. Under section 26 of the Local Government Act 2000, an election of members of every local authority shall be held in the year 2004 and every fifth year thereafter. The poll at local elections shall be held in the month of May or June, as may be fixed by Ministerial Order. The procedure for...

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Register of Electors (30 Jan 2024)

Darragh O'Brien: Local authorities, in their capacity as registration authorities, are responsible for the management and maintenance of the electoral register, and each one is now required to prepare and maintain a pending electors list. This enables the pre-registration of 16 and 17 year olds, who are then transferred to the electoral register automatically when they turn 18 A series of national and local...

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Housing Policy (30 Jan 2024)

Darragh O'Brien: The government has implemented several measures to ensure a balanced housing market across all tenures, including home ownership, social housing, and private rental. Under the 'Housing for All', the Government committed to an 'owner-occupier' guarantee, allowing local authorities to designate a percentage of houses and duplexes in a development for owner-occupiers. In May 2021, the...

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Housing Provision (30 Jan 2024)

Darragh O'Brien: An adequate supply and mix of housing across all tenures is critical to balancing supply and demand in the housing market, including for home ownership, social housing and private rental. Under Housing Policy Objective 1.10 of Housing for All, Government committed to introducing an ‘owner-occupier' guarantee to enable local authorities specify the proportion of houses and duplexes in...

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Ministerial Staff (30 Jan 2024)

Darragh O'Brien: I have two nominated Garda drivers assigned to me in my role as Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage. These drivers operate on a week on/week off basis and details of their contracts are a matter for my colleague the Minister for Justice. The two Ministers of State in my Department have appointed two civilian drivers, each also on a week on/week off pattern. These drivers'...

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Water Supply (30 Jan 2024)

Darragh O'Brien: On 25 January 2024, the Court of Justice of the European Union ruled that Ireland failed to fully implement the Drinking Water Directive (98/83/EC). The Court’s findings refer to the historical position in September 2020. Considerable progress has been made since then to the water supplies concerned in this case. The ruling is in relation to breaches of the limit for Trihalomenthanes...

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Student Accommodation (30 Jan 2024)

Darragh O'Brien: An Bord Pleanála (the Board) is the national independent statutory body with responsibility for the determination of planning appeals and direct applications for strategic infrastructure and other developments under the Planning and Development Act 2000, as amended, and certain other Acts. Details of cases to be determined by the Board are a matter for the Board. Under section 30 of the...

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Housing Schemes (25 Jan 2024)

Darragh O'Brien: The Mortgage to Rent (MTR) scheme was introduced in 2012 for borrowers of commercial lending institutions and is targeted at those households in mortgage arrears who have had their mortgage position deemed unsustainable by their lender under the Mortgage Arrears Resolution Process (MARP), who agree to the voluntary surrender of their home and who have very limited options, if any, to meet...

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Wind Energy Generation (25 Jan 2024)

Darragh O'Brien: I propose to take Questions Nos. 260 and 261 together. My Department is currently undertaking a focused review of the 2006 Wind Energy Development Guidelines which is addressing a number of key aspects of the Guidelines including shadow flicker, noise, setback distance, community obligation, community dividend and grid connections. With regard to shadow flicker, my Department intends to...

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Departmental Staff (25 Jan 2024)

Darragh O'Brien: My Department does not generally keep a record of qualifications held by staff members, and accordingly there may be staff working in various roles in the Department who have a qualification in quantity surveying but applied for different positions. However, we do currently have seven fulltime equivalent (FTE) quantity surveyors employed in the department in roles where this is a requirement...

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Departmental Data (25 Jan 2024)

Darragh O'Brien: Data on the number of residential units purchased by households and non-households are published by the Central Statistics Office (CSO). These data are available in table HPA02 (Residential Dwelling Property Transactions) on the CSO website. Data from 2010 to 2022 are available from the CSO at data.cso.ie/table/HPA02.

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Defective Building Materials (25 Jan 2024)

Darragh O'Brien: My Department has received a copy of the draft report referred to. I will give consideration to the recommendations contained in the final report when it is received.

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Defective Building Materials (25 Jan 2024)

Darragh O'Brien: The Remediation of Dwellings Damaged by the Use of Defective Concrete Blocks Act 2022 (the Act), which contains the Enhanced Defective Concrete Blocks Grant Scheme commenced on 22 June 2023 and the related Regulations were adopted on 29 June 2023. The Enhanced Grant Scheme provided for the extension of the scheme to include dwellings damaged due to the use of defective concrete blocks in...

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Defective Building Materials (25 Jan 2024)

Darragh O'Brien: I propose to take Questions Nos. 269 and 270 together. The design and construction of buildings is regulated under the Building Control Acts 1990-2020. The Acts provide for the making of Building Regulations, Building Control Regulations and designates local authorities as building control authorities. The 31 local building control authorities have extensive powers of inspection and...

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Housing Provision (24 Jan 2024)

Darragh O'Brien: The Land Development Agency's (LDA) Report on Relevant Public Land was published in March 2023 and can be seen via the following link: lda.ie/uploads/documents/230323_LDA_Ministers-Report-on-Rele vant-Public-Land_high-res-resized_2023-03-28-105049_jooh.pdf . Specific information on the former Cork Prison site can be found on page 109. My Department and the Department of Justice have held...

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Housing Schemes (24 Jan 2024)

Darragh O'Brien: Under Housing for All, there is a policy objective to increase and improve housing options for older people to facilitate ageing in place with dignity and independence. Housing for All builds on and takes forward the ongoing actions in "Housing Options for Our Ageing Population" policy statement from 2019, published jointly by my Department and the Department of Health, which provides policy...

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Energy Conservation (24 Jan 2024)

Darragh O'Brien: In response to the Programme for Government commitment, my Department launched a newly revised ten year Energy Efficiency Retrofit Programme (EERP) in 2021 to retrofit 36,500 local authority homes by 2030. This new programme set a BER performance requirement of “B2” or cost optimal level. The upscaling of the works included in the programme sees a substantial overall increase in...

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Departmental Staff (24 Jan 2024)

Darragh O'Brien: My Department formally launched its Blended Working policy in July 2022, which has been developed in line with the central policy framework for Blended Working in the Civil Service. My Department moved to the implementation phase of this policy and commenced accepting applications for Blended Working in early October 2022. Rollout of Blended Working across the entire organisation was...

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Departmental Staff (24 Jan 2024)

Darragh O'Brien: My Department does not maintain the requested information in respect of the State bodies under its aegis. Arrangements have been put in place by all bodies under the aegis of my Department to facilitate the provision of information directly to members of the Oireachtas. This provides a speedy, efficient and cost effective system to address queries directly to the relevant bodies. The...