Results 7,401-7,420 of 25,844 for speaker:Darragh O'Brien

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Homeless Accommodation (6 Jul 2023)

Darragh O'Brien: Some 60,000 households are supported through HAP tenancies right now in the private rental sector. The Deputy just said to the House that we do not need a private rental sector, which is an astonishing remark. The reality is that we are building more social houses than were built since 1975; we will do still more and will continue to do so. In my supplementary response, I will refer to...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Homeless Accommodation (6 Jul 2023)

Darragh O'Brien: What criteria would the Deputy apply? No criteria?

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Homeless Accommodation (6 Jul 2023)

Darragh O'Brien: People enter emergency accommodation for many reasons. Every month, we publish a report on it. They include people who received notices to quit, relationship break-ups and new entries to the State - there are many different reasons for that to be the case. It is important that people know that anyone who finds themselves homeless will be supported by the State in emergency accommodation....

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Homeless Accommodation (6 Jul 2023)

Darragh O'Brien: The Deputy is living in fantasy land. Homelessness is a very serious situation. I do not wish to belittle it in any way. We are doing everything we can to make sure we can drive those numbers down and exit people into permanent housing solutions.

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Water Services (6 Jul 2023)

Darragh O'Brien: The past decade has seen a significant reform of water services in Ireland. The policy paper on water sector transformation was published in February 2021, which set out our vision as a Government for water services based on the full integration of water services into Uisce Éireann as a single, publicly-owned national water services authority. The objective is to deliver a world-class...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Water Services (6 Jul 2023)

Darragh O'Brien: I have brought forward the unserved villages. I expect to make announcements in the short term around that; it is the first €50 million outside of the capital programme for Irish Water. I visited Shannonvale with the Deputy. The situation there is intolerable. I have been back to Uisce Éireann. It will provide the stage 1 strategic assessment, which will move it on to stage...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Housing Provision (6 Jul 2023)

Darragh O'Brien: It is a very pertinent question. The management and maintenance of the local authority housing stock, including pre-letting repairs to vacant properties, implementation of a planned maintenance programme - which will be important and on which I will expand - and carrying out responsive repairs, is a matter for each individual local authority, and in the main they do that job very well. The...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Housing Provision (6 Jul 2023)

Darragh O'Brien: The Deputy is right that estate management is really important. On Monday, I was in Galway city and county. We have approved in the housing Department alone 300 additional staff in our local authorities this year. Those posts are being filled. I was talking to the chief executive of the housing team in Galway city. Like any other sector, it is taking longer to find and employ people but...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Housing Provision (6 Jul 2023)

Darragh O'Brien: I agree. We see fantastic developments across the country, not least in the Deputy's county. We support the ongoing maintenance of those financially. Estate management is crucial. Some local authorities for a number of years effectively got out of that role and are now getting back into it. I have met estate management teams across the country. That engagement with householders in our...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Homeless Accommodation (6 Jul 2023)

Darragh O'Brien: That is not what I said but I might get an opportunity to come back on that in supplementaries. The Residential Tenancies (Deferment of Termination Dates of Certain Tenancies) Act 2022 was a time-limited intervention which provided for a stay on eviction notices up to 31 March 2023 and deferred tenancy terminations running to 18 June. It was on a phased basis. The purpose of it was to...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Fire Service (6 Jul 2023)

Darragh O'Brien: I inform Deputy Brady that the matter is before the Labour Court. I am not going to go down the road Deputy Brady has blatantly gone, in trying to politicise what is a really important issue. We have seen the Deputy's theatrics here before. This Government has a focused, determined, and deliberative approach. I have met many firefighters all over the country. I commissioned the review....

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Fire Service (6 Jul 2023)

Darragh O'Brien: Let us allow the Labour Court do its work. As I said, there has been very good engagement from SIPTU and there is a way forward on this. I want this resolved. I have been very clear on that. Remuneration is key to that. No one is sitting on their hands and no one will be sitting on their hands. The unions have entered into the process and I welcome that. Let the Labour Court do its...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Emergency Accommodation (6 Jul 2023)

Darragh O'Brien: No, it was in January.

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Emergency Accommodation (6 Jul 2023)

Darragh O'Brien: Sure, this is the biggest single issue we are tackling and supply is key to all of it. Deputy Gould knows this as well. To give some facts, and to look at last year, 5,478 exits from homelessness were achieved by way of tenancies being created or else people exiting into social housing. We had more people exiting in the last quarter of last year and the first quarter of this year into...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Emergency Accommodation (6 Jul 2023)

Darragh O'Brien: Sinn Féin would not reinstate the eviction ban and the party has changed its position on this issue three times. It has changed the dates. It has said it would extend it to Christmas this year, then 1 March, then December and then January. The reality is that the eviction moratorium gave us the opportunity to deliver more accommodation, which we did. We have debated this issue. In...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Emergency Accommodation (6 Jul 2023)

Darragh O'Brien: I did not interrupt the Deputy once. We do need good landlords in the system as well. The measures taken impact supply. They do, and if we were to continue to have an open-ended moratorium, then we would see more accommodation lost in the private rental sector, thereby exacerbating the problem. We are focused on increasing supply, which we are doing.

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Fire Service (6 Jul 2023)

Darragh O'Brien: The implementation of the retained review report recommendations, and the Deputy may know this, is currently part of a sensitive deliberative process of industrial relations negotiations under the auspices of the Labour Court. I inform the House again that I commissioned this review that produced 13 recommendations, which we accepted. The chair of the Labour Court wrote to the Local...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Emergency Accommodation (6 Jul 2023)

Darragh O'Brien: I wish Deputy Gould good morning, as I was getting worried there. The Leas-Cheann Comhairle has given some latitude to allow his question, which is good. It is an important question. There is no doubt but that the continued rise in numbers accessing emergency accommodation is of serious concern to me and to the Government. I am working with the national homeless action committee to ensure...

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Housing Provision (6 Jul 2023)

Darragh O'Brien: Details on the number of households qualified for social housing support in each local authority area is provided in the annual statutory Summary of Social Housing Assessments (SSHA). The most recent summary, conducted in November 2022, indicates there were 460 households on the social housing waiting list in Cavan, a decrease of 24.3% from 2019 . In 2022, the local authority delivered 116...

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Housing Provision (6 Jul 2023)

Darragh O'Brien: New build social housing delivery is achieved through a number of funding programmes available to local authorities and Approved Housing Bodies (AHBs). Local authorities and AHBs can deliver new build social housing through direct construction, in partnership with developers through 'turnkey' projects and through the Part V process. In 2023, a total of 7,443 new build social homes were...