Results 81-100 of 15,634 for speaker:Eoin Ó Broin

Select Committee on Housing, Local Government and Heritage: Estimates for Public Services 2025
Vote 34 - Housing, Local Government and Heritage (Further Revised) (2 Oct 2025)

Eoin Ó Broin: I got a very helpful parliamentary question reply on the outturn for last year's Vote. The one head that we did not get an outturn figure for was the croí cónaithe towns vacancy supports, the outturn for 2024. I am just wondering if Ms Ryan or anyone else on the team has the figure for the total spent on subhead A36 last year.

Select Committee on Housing, Local Government and Heritage: Estimates for Public Services 2025
Vote 34 - Housing, Local Government and Heritage (Further Revised) (2 Oct 2025)

Eoin Ó Broin: Yes. The REV for this year is now €118 million but I am keen to get the figure for the outturn last year.

Select Committee on Housing, Local Government and Heritage: Estimates for Public Services 2025
Vote 34 - Housing, Local Government and Heritage (Further Revised) (2 Oct 2025)

Eoin Ó Broin: While somebody is looking for that, there are now increasing demands on An Coimisiún Pleanála arising from the renewable energy directive III as well as other matters. In terms of additional funding for the staff of An Coimisiún Pleanála, there have been significant sanctions and the commission faces challenges in getting those staff. We are hearing from wind energy...

Select Committee on Housing, Local Government and Heritage: Estimates for Public Services 2025
Vote 34 - Housing, Local Government and Heritage (Further Revised) (2 Oct 2025)

Eoin Ó Broin: The commission is actively recruiting and that is all very welcome. The one thing I would say is that a lot of it is in the context of the backlog, the changing nature of planning applications and also the other non-planning functions the commission has to deal with, including some of the appeals and so on. What we are hearing through my colleague Deputy Pa Daly and his outreach to the...

Select Committee on Housing, Local Government and Heritage: Estimates for Public Services 2025
Vote 34 - Housing, Local Government and Heritage (Further Revised) (2 Oct 2025)

Eoin Ó Broin: Obviously, there is no additional money for response maintenance and casual relets of voids. What I notice in the NOAC report that was published last week or early this week is that the 22-week average turnaround period, which is the real problem as opposed to the number of units, has now stretched out to 30-something weeks, which means we are going backwards. I appreciate some of this is...

Select Committee on Housing, Local Government and Heritage: Estimates for Public Services 2025
Vote 34 - Housing, Local Government and Heritage (Further Revised) (2 Oct 2025)

Eoin Ó Broin: To finish that, it has gone from an average turnaround time of 22 weeks in the previous year to 35.56 weeks. The vacancy rate is actually quite small. The vacancy rate in the public housing sector is about half the vacancy rate in the general housing sector, and 1% is great, but even 2% is not the problem. The problem is the length of time. It is one thing for the Minister of State or I...

Select Committee on Housing, Local Government and Heritage: Estimates for Public Services 2025
Vote 34 - Housing, Local Government and Heritage (Further Revised) (2 Oct 2025)

Eoin Ó Broin: The NOAC figure includes all of that, from keys coming in to keys going back.

Select Committee on Housing, Local Government and Heritage: Estimates for Public Services 2025
Vote 34 - Housing, Local Government and Heritage (Further Revised) (2 Oct 2025)

Eoin Ó Broin: That includes Garda vetting and so on. Other than saying what we would like to happen, does the Minister of State intend to do something concrete, which he would have our support on, to get the local authorities in this space to become more efficient?

Select Committee on Housing, Local Government and Heritage: Estimates for Public Services 2025
Vote 34 - Housing, Local Government and Heritage (Further Revised) (2 Oct 2025)

Eoin Ó Broin: I will accept that offer now and-----

Select Committee on Housing, Local Government and Heritage: Estimates for Public Services 2025
Vote 34 - Housing, Local Government and Heritage (Further Revised) (2 Oct 2025)

Eoin Ó Broin: I will tell the Minister of State what I think needs to happen. A new circular needs to be issued. A target timeline needs to be set, reducing over a period of years. There needs to be more flexibility for funding. Some properties will require more than the maximum that can be provided, while others currently require less. There are issues of monitoring and reporting. We should not have...

Select Committee on Housing, Local Government and Heritage: Estimates for Public Services 2025
Vote 34 - Housing, Local Government and Heritage (Further Revised) (2 Oct 2025)

Eoin Ó Broin: As the Minister of State raised the issue, our party is keen to get the amending legislation done as soon as possible. We would we be willing to waive pre-legislative scrutiny, obviously subject to seeing the content of it. It would be good to know if there is a timeline for that. My colleagues in Donegal, Mayo and Clare are raising this more regularly than I am, but the delay is...

Select Committee on Housing, Local Government and Heritage: Estimates for Public Services 2025
Vote 34 - Housing, Local Government and Heritage (Further Revised) (2 Oct 2025)

Eoin Ó Broin: For us, that would be our view.

Select Committee on Housing, Local Government and Heritage: Estimates for Public Services 2025
Vote 34 - Housing, Local Government and Heritage (Further Revised) (2 Oct 2025)

Eoin Ó Broin: Could we get it this month, for example?

Select Committee on Housing, Local Government and Heritage: Estimates for Public Services 2025
Vote 34 - Housing, Local Government and Heritage (Further Revised) (2 Oct 2025)

Eoin Ó Broin: What does that mean in plain English? It would not be applied retrospectively if a person has spent money but if a person has not spent the money it would be. Is that the case?

Select Committee on Housing, Local Government and Heritage: Estimates for Public Services 2025
Vote 34 - Housing, Local Government and Heritage (Further Revised) (2 Oct 2025)

Eoin Ó Broin: Even a briefing with the committee members before the publication would be helpful.

Select Committee on Housing, Local Government and Heritage: Estimates for Public Services 2025
Vote 34 - Housing, Local Government and Heritage (Further Revised) (2 Oct 2025)

Eoin Ó Broin: Is that grouping them as they were in the publication?

Select Committee on Housing, Local Government and Heritage: Estimates for Public Services 2025
Vote 34 - Housing, Local Government and Heritage (Further Revised) (2 Oct 2025)

Eoin Ó Broin: No, I understand that it is super technical. I am not looking for it to be rushed, just to get it right. Will the domestic ones be this year or next year, given that it is now October?

Select Committee on Housing, Local Government and Heritage: Estimates for Public Services 2025
Vote 34 - Housing, Local Government and Heritage (Further Revised) (2 Oct 2025)

Eoin Ó Broin: By way of information, we held committee hearings, which the Minister of State would have been here for, when the previous Government was doing its review of Part B of the building regulations, which deal with fire safety. There is no opposition from our fire safety authorities to updating the regulations to allow us to do timber-framed buildings of over two storeys. The issue is it has to...

Select Committee on Housing, Local Government and Heritage: Estimates for Public Services 2025
Vote 34 - Housing, Local Government and Heritage (Further Revised) (2 Oct 2025)

Eoin Ó Broin: Our building regulations do not currently allow more than two storeys in a timber-framed building. The difficulty is if the density requirements in our development plans mean 80%-plus of housing is going to have to be mid-density or high density. Timber framing, and especially 3D timber framing and light gauge steel framing, are going to be key. People talk about agrément certificates...

Select Committee on Housing, Local Government and Heritage: Estimates for Public Services 2025
Vote 34 - Housing, Local Government and Heritage (Further Revised) (2 Oct 2025)

Eoin Ó Broin: One hundred per cent.