Results 9,181-9,200 of 25,880 for speaker:Darragh O'Brien

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Housing Provision (18 Jan 2023)

Darragh O'Brien: Housing First recognises that a stable home provides the basis for recovery in other areas. With Housing First, the priority is to support a person who has experienced homelessness into permanent housing as quickly as possible, without any preconditions around addiction or mental health treatment. Then, intensive work continues on these issues once they are housed. Housing First has been a...

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Traveller Accommodation (18 Jan 2023)

Darragh O'Brien: The Housing (Traveller Accommodation) Act 1998 provides that the role of my Department is to ensure that there are adequate structures and supports in place to assist housing authorities in providing accommodation for Travellers, including a national framework of policy, legislation and funding. The Act provides that housing authorities have statutory responsibility for the assessment of...

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Public Private Partnerships (18 Jan 2023)

Darragh O'Brien: I propose to take Questions Nos. 515 and 516 together. The Social Housing Public Private Partnership (PPP) Programme represents an additional strand of delivery to increase the supply of social housing. The current programme has to date delivered 1,000 new homes with a further 2,700 units in the pipeline. In terms of progress to date, in 2021 construction was completed on Bundles 1...

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Housing Provision (18 Jan 2023)

Darragh O'Brien: The relevant details are being compiled and will be provided to the Deputy in accordance with Standing Orders

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Housing Schemes (18 Jan 2023)

Darragh O'Brien: The majority of tenants in local authority and Approved Housing Body (AHB) dwellings pay a differential rent in accordance with the relevant local authority's differential rent scheme. However, in some circumstances, including in AHB dwellings funded through my Department's Capital Assistance Scheme (CAS), tenants will pay an economic rent rather than a differential rent. CAS provides...

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Covid-19 Pandemic Supports (18 Jan 2023)

Darragh O'Brien: On 19 January 2022, the Government announced a Covid-19 recognition payment for frontline healthcare workers to recognise their unique role during the pandemic. This once-off payment is ring fenced to staff who were ordinarily onsite in Covid-19-exposed healthcare environments within the period from 1 March 2020 to 30 June 2021. It applies to eligible staff in the public health service and...

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Housing Provision (18 Jan 2023)

Darragh O'Brien: My Department undertook a Review of Delivery Costs and Viability for Affordability for Affordable Residential Developments in 2018. While the Review highlighted some of the factors that can impact the cost of land, it did not specifically consider the proportion that land costs contribute to overall cost of developing houses or apartments. A copy of the Review can be accessed on my...

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Charitable and Voluntary Organisations (18 Jan 2023)

Darragh O'Brien: I have no statutory function in relation to the management of the organisation in question nor in relation to the work of the Charities Regulator. It would not be appropriate for me to comment further on the matter.

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Construction Industry (18 Jan 2023)

Darragh O'Brien: Following receipt of the report of the Working Group I established to examine defects in housing, I brought a Memorandum for Information to the Government meeting on 27 September 2022. In this context, I committed to the establishment of an inter-departmental and agency group to develop an options paper with a view to providing support to homeowners who find themselves in a difficult...

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Housing Schemes (18 Jan 2023)

Darragh O'Brien: A key principle of the Housing Assistance Payment (HAP) scheme is that eligible households source their own accommodation in the private rented sector, which best suits their needs, in their area of choice The minimum standards for rental accommodation are prescribed in the Housing (Standards for Rented Houses) Regulations 2019 and apply to all dwellings that are let or available to let,...

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Local Authorities (18 Jan 2023)

Darragh O'Brien: Section 279 of the Maritime Area Planning (MAP) Act 2021 extends the functional area of the coastal planning authorities to include the nearshore, that is the area between the high water mark and 3 nautical miles. Applications for development, excluding development listed in the Eighth Schedule of the Planning and Development Act, will be submitted to the coastal planning authorities. ...

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Housing Provision (18 Jan 2023)

Darragh O'Brien: 2022 represented the commencement of a very ambitious programme of delivery of affordable housing. This momentum will continue with delivery significantly increasing in 2023. A pipeline of housing delivery is in place and being developed by local authorities, by Approved Housing Bodies (AHBs) and by the LDA. Local authorities have been begun collating information on delivery of...

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Departmental Reports (18 Jan 2023)

Darragh O'Brien: In October 2021, I requested the National Building Control and Market Surveillance Office, in partnership with Donegal County Council and Geological Survey Ireland, to carry out an audit of quarries in Donegal to evaluate relevant economic operators’ compliance with the Construction Products Regulation (EU) No 305/2011 when placing relevant construction products (aggregate concrete...

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Housing Policy (18 Jan 2023)

Darragh O'Brien: My Department is not aware of any instances where a local authority or Approved Housing Body has been prevented by contract restrictions from acquiring apartments for social housing. For example, The Housing Agency has purchased hundreds of apartments over several years, in its own capacity and on trust for local authorities, and the Agency has informed my Department that it not been...

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Housing Policy (18 Jan 2023)

Darragh O'Brien: I propose to take Questions Nos. 529 and 530 together. The Housing Demand and Need Assessment (HNDA) framework and tool assists local authorities develop long-term views of housing demand and need and provide a robust evidence-base to support decisions about new housing supply, wider investment and housing related services that inform an overall national housing profile. The HNDA tool helps...

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Local Government Reform (18 Jan 2023)

Darragh O'Brien: It is an important priority of mine and of my Department to support key activities and stakeholders in their endeavours to advance the agenda of encouraging the participation of women in local government and promote wider inclusivity and diversity in local government and local decision-making structures. In June 2022, my Department issued its fourth annual call for funding to local...

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Property Registration (18 Jan 2023)

Darragh O'Brien: In common with many other public service organisations, the Property Registration Authority (PRA) continues to deal with the adverse impact that COVID-19 has had on service delivery. Despite the PRA implementing innovative ways to deliver its registration services throughout the period of restrictions, an accumulation of applications for registration inevitably arose. Conversely, the...

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Departmental Policies (18 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: Regeneration Projects (18 Jan 2023)

Darragh O'Brien: As part of Dublin City Council's (DCC) continuous redevelopment work and building on their reviews of the conditions of its older flat complexes, they have advised my Department that they are developing a long term strategy for the redevelopment and/or refurbishment of many of these complexes. This is a matter for DCC in the first instance. With regards to Pearse House, due to the large...

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Departmental Reviews (18 Jan 2023)

Darragh O'Brien: Each local authority’s situation is complex and it is important that sufficient time is taken to analyse and assess potential options in that respect. A comprehensive review of the baselines could not commence in time for the 2023 Local Property Tax (LPT) allocation process without reliable and up-to-date data; such as preliminary census data and updated LPT yield data, following...