Results 9,101-9,120 of 25,880 for speaker:Darragh O'Brien

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Housing Provision (24 Jan 2023)

Darragh O'Brien: The Tenant (Incremental) Purchase Scheme is open to eligible tenants, including joint tenants, of local authority homes available for sale under the scheme. Local authorities may, within the provisions of the Housing (Sale of Local Authority Houses) Regulations 2015, exclude certain houses which the authority considers should not be sold for reasons such as proper stock or estate...

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Vacant Properties (24 Jan 2023)

Darragh O'Brien: I propose to take Questions Nos. 299 and 300 together. Pathway 4 of Housing for All sets out a blueprint to address vacancy and make efficient use of our existing housing stock. Many areas of cities, towns and villages of all sizes face the blight of vacant properties, which, if brought back into use, could add real vibrancy and provide new accommodation in those areas. The Croí...

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Appointments to State Boards (24 Jan 2023)

Darragh O'Brien: The Land Development Agency (LDA) was established under the Land Development Agency (Establishment) Order 2018 as amended by the Land Development Agency (Amendment) Order 2018. In December 2018, the Government gave a derogation to the Guidelines on the Appointment to State Boards, to allow for the appointment of an interim LDA Board outside of the Stateboards.ie process until the LDA’s...

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Housing Schemes (24 Jan 2023)

Darragh O'Brien: The Tenant (Incremental) Purchase Scheme provides for the purchase by eligible tenants, or joint tenants, of local authority homes available for sale under the scheme. The scheme was amended in February 2022 to include a reduction in the minimum reckonable income required to be eligible under the scheme from €15,000 to €12,500. This ensured older tenants, whose only income...

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Defective Building Materials (24 Jan 2023)

Darragh O'Brien: I propose to take Questions Nos. 303 to 305, inclusive, together. The purpose of the Remediation of Dwellings Damaged by the Use of Defective Concrete Blocks Act 2022 is to implement and give legislative underpinning to a series of measures to improve and enhance the current grant scheme, as agreed by Government on 30 November 2021. The administrative areas of the following counties have been...

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Departmental Meetings (24 Jan 2023)

Darragh O'Brien: The regeneration of Poolbeg West is an important step in the transformation of the Dublin Docklands area, with the potential to provide for 3,500 homes. In June 2021 following a comprehensive international open market campaign, a consortium of Ronan Group Real Estate, Oaktree Capital Management, and Lioncor Developments (“the Consortium”) acquired a controlling 80% shareholding...

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Planning Issues (24 Jan 2023)

Darragh O'Brien: Updated Rural Housing Planning Guidelines are currently being prepared by my Department. The updated guidelines will expand on the high level spatial planning policy of the National Planning Framework (NPF), in particular on National Policy Objective (NPO) 19 which relates to rural housing. This objective makes a clear policy distinction between rural areas under urban influence (i.e. areas...

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Housing Policy (24 Jan 2023)

Darragh O'Brien: My Department is in the process of developing Section 28 guidelines for Planning Authorities on Sustainable and Compact Settlement Guidance (SCSG). When finalised, the SCSG’s will supersede current Section 28 ministerial guidelines for planning authorities on Sustainable Residential Development in Urban Areas (the ‘Sustainable Residential Development Guidelines’) last...

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Defective Building Materials (24 Jan 2023)

Darragh O'Brien: The Programme for Government sets out a number of commitments in respect of the important policy area of addressing building defects. These include a commitment to examine defects in housing, having regard to the recommendations of the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing’s report Safe as Houses? Housing for All, the Government’s national plan on housing to 2030, reiterates...

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Planning Issues (24 Jan 2023)

Darragh O'Brien: I wish to explain at the outset that my role as Minister in relation to the planning system is primarily, to provide a policy and legislative framework under which the planning authorities, An Bord Pleanála (the Board) and the Office of the Planning Regulator (the OPR) perform their statutory planning functions. The legislative framework chiefly comprises the Planning and Development...

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Housing Policy (24 Jan 2023)

Darragh O'Brien: Under the Planning and Development Act 2000, as amended (the Act), there is no specific preclusion to the development of log cabins as a housing type. All development, unless specifically exempted under the Act or associated Regulations, requires planning permission. Any person may lodge an application for permission to a planning authority in accordance with section 34 of the Act for the...

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Vacant Properties (24 Jan 2023)

Darragh O'Brien: The management and maintenance of local authority housing stock, including pre-letting repairs to vacant properties, the implementation of a planned maintenance programme and carrying out of responsive repairs, are matters for each individual local authority under Section 58 of the Housing Act 1966. Since 2014, Exchequer funding has been provided through my Department's Voids Programme to...

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Defective Building Materials (24 Jan 2023)

Darragh O'Brien: I propose to take Questions Nos. 313 and 316 together. Oversight of financial institutions is outside the scope and remit of my Department but I confirm that I have engaged with my colleague, the Minister for Finance on these matters. The Minister for Finance advised that neither he nor his Department have any role in relation to the commercial decisions of individual regulated...

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Building Regulations (24 Jan 2023)

Darragh O'Brien: The query referred to relates to the operation of the building control system and my Department is in the process of replying to the individual concerned. In the context of the issues raised, the July 2022 report, Defects in Apartments, Report of the Working Group to Examine Defects in Housing,the Working Group, which I established, concluded that there is no single cause of the defects in...

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Housing Policy (24 Jan 2023)

Darragh O'Brien: I launched a new joint National Housing Strategy for Disabled People (NHSDP) 2022-2027 on 14 January 2022, together with my colleagues Peter Burke, TD Minister of State for Planning and Local Government and Anne Rabbitte, T.D., Minister of State with responsibility for Disability (available at www.gov.ie/en/press-release/1c6c5-new-national-housing-strat...

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Defective Building Materials (24 Jan 2023)

Darragh O'Brien: I understand that the Question refers to the Remediation of Dwellings Damaged by the Use of Defective Concrete Blocks Act 2022 ('the 2022 Act'). The purpose of the 2022 Act is to implement and give legislative underpinning to a series of measures to improve and enhance the current defective concrete blocks (DCB) grant scheme, as agreed by Government on 30 November 2021. The administrative...

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Housing Provision (24 Jan 2023)

Darragh O'Brien: The delivery of new social housing is planned and implemented by local authorities, working in partnership with housing associations and the construction sector, with funding support from my Department. Following the publication of Housing for All, the Government's housing plan for Ireland, I issued social housing delivery targets to all local authority Chief Executives for the 5 year period...

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Rental Sector (24 Jan 2023)

Darragh O'Brien: I propose to take Questions Nos. 320 and 322 together. The Residential Tenancies Board (RTB) was established as an independent statutory body under the Residential Tenancies Act 2004, as amended, to operate a national tenancy registration system and to resolve disputes between landlords and tenants. Accordingly, the implementation of the new tenancy management system that registers...

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Rental Sector (24 Jan 2023)

Darragh O'Brien: The Residential Tenancies Acts 2004-2022 regulates the landlord-tenant relationship in the rented residential sector and sets out the rights and obligations of landlords and tenants. The Residential Tenancies Board (RTB) was established as an independent statutory body under the Acts to operate a national tenancy registration system and to facilitate the resolution of disputes between...

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Defective Building Materials (24 Jan 2023)

Darragh O'Brien: The purpose of the Remediation of Dwellings Damaged by the Use of Defective Concrete Blocks Act 2022 ('the 2022 Act') is to implement and give legislative underpinning to a series of measures to improve and enhance the current grant scheme, as agreed by Government on 30 November 2021. The administrative areas of the following counties have been designated by the 2022 Act for the purposes of...