Results 14,901-14,920 of 26,245 for speaker:Darragh O'Brien

Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Estimates for Public Services 2021
Vote 16 - Valuation Office (Revised)
Vote 23 - Property Registration Authority (Revised)
Vote 34 - Housing, Local Government and Heritage (Revised) (20 Apr 2021)

Darragh O'Brien: We have set out our housing target for this year. It is for 12,750 units, of which 2,450 will be through long-term leasing. I do not see leasing as taking over from Part V. Last year, 19 or 20 homes were secured under Part V leasing. We must be aware of value for money. My big focus is on building new homes, which is why we have allocated funding for that. There is a role for leasing....

Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Estimates for Public Services 2021
Vote 16 - Valuation Office (Revised)
Vote 23 - Property Registration Authority (Revised)
Vote 34 - Housing, Local Government and Heritage (Revised) (20 Apr 2021)

Darragh O'Brien: I am glad that Deputy Higgins has raised a number of issues, especially about affordable housing. It will be clear to the committee and people will be aware that provision of affordable housing, especially for affordable purchase and affordable rent, is a priority. The measures that we brought forward in budget 2021 are not insignificant at all. I am proposing some changes to the serviced...

Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Estimates for Public Services 2021
Vote 16 - Valuation Office (Revised)
Vote 23 - Property Registration Authority (Revised)
Vote 34 - Housing, Local Government and Heritage (Revised) (20 Apr 2021)

Darragh O'Brien: I thank Deputy Ó Broin. The €214 million carryover is made up of six different subheads. There is €58 million from local authority housing and €40 million from energy efficiency, with about €90 million from pyrite and mica remediation, which is basically because the mica scheme is up and running and accepting applications. There is about €10 million...

Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Estimates for Public Services 2021
Vote 16 - Valuation Office (Revised)
Vote 23 - Property Registration Authority (Revised)
Vote 34 - Housing, Local Government and Heritage (Revised) (20 Apr 2021)

Darragh O'Brien: I thank the Deputy. On the issue of sewerage treatment capacity, wastewater capacity and freshwater capacity, it is a great frustration for many people. We have discussed this ourselves and we are doing a couple of things right now. I have asked Irish Water to work with local authorities in resetting priorities of delivery under the capital plan. We need money to do that, which is why I...

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Social and Affordable Housing (1 Apr 2021)

Darragh O'Brien: The 2021 Energy Efficiency Retrofit Programme (EERP) is a newly revised programme devised around the Programme for Government with a set target of over 500,000 homes to be retrofit by 2030, of which it is estimated approximately 36,000 will be local authority owned homes. In early 2021, local authorities received an allocation along with a minimum target of homes they are required to...

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Local Authority Housing (1 Apr 2021)

Darragh O'Brien: The delivery of housing supports is a key priority of Government and this is reflected in the Programme for Government commitment to increase the social housing stock nationally by more than 50,000, with a key emphasis on delivering new build homes. The Government investment for the delivery of all housing programmes this year alone, is €3.3 billion and given the major focus on new...

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Social and Affordable Housing (1 Apr 2021)

Darragh O'Brien: The Housing Assistance Payment (HAP) Scheme is deemed to be a social housing support under the Housing (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 2014. As a long term housing support, an assessment of housing need must be completed in order for a household to qualify for HAP. Any household with an identified housing need is eligible for HAP. Under HAP, households at risk of homelessness may be eligible...

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: European Convention on Human Rights (1 Apr 2021)

Darragh O'Brien: My Department supports a number of local authority housing stock improvement programmes which have seen €457m of exchequer funding invested in local authority housing stock improvement works since 2014. For example: - The Energy Efficiency Programme aims to improve energy performance and comfort levels in homes. Since 2014, 60,357 homes have benefited from some level of retrofitting...

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Social and Affordable Housing (1 Apr 2021)

Darragh O'Brien: I propose to take Questions Nos. 137, 138 and 141 together. Details on the number of households qualified for social housing support in each local authority administrative area are provided in the annual statutory Summary of Social Housing Assessments (SSHA). The most recent summary, conducted in November 2020, shows that 61,880 households were assessed as qualified for and being in need of...

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Social and Affordable Housing (1 Apr 2021)

Darragh O'Brien: I propose to take Questions Nos. 139 and 140 together. Details on the number of households qualified for social housing support in each local authority administrative area are provided in the annual statutory Summary of Social Housing Assessments (SSHA). The most recent summary, conducted in November 2020, shows that 61,880 households were assessed as qualified for and being in need of...

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Housing Data (1 Apr 2021)

Darragh O'Brien: The Rebuilding Ireland Home Loan scheme remains open for business. All local authorities are receiving and processing RIHL applications and are incorporating increased flexibility to accommodate applicants during the COVID 19 Pandemic. It is anticipated that processing of a complete and valid application will take approximately 6-8 weeks. This period may vary during the current COVID-19...

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Local Authority Housing (1 Apr 2021)

Darragh O'Brien: Applications for social housing support are assessed by the relevant local authority, in accordance with the eligibility and need criteria set down in section 20 of the Housing (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 2009 and the associated Social Housing Assessment Regulations 2011, as amended. If a household meets the eligibility and need criteria, it qualifies for the suite of social housing...

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Housing Policy (1 Apr 2021)

Darragh O'Brien: Single applicants for the loan must not be earning greater than €50,000 gross per annum. These income limits are unchanged from the previous local authority loan offerings. Loan applicants who are dissatisfied with a loan application decision of a local authority Credit Committee can usually appeal the decision to the local authority. However if someone does not meet the eligibility...

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Departmental Staff (1 Apr 2021)

Darragh O'Brien: The information requested by the Deputy is set out in the table below, and reflects the position at 28 February 2021. Grade Female Male Total ASSISTANT SECRETARY 4 4 8 PRINCIPAL 14 31 45 ASSISTANT PRINCIPAL 80 55 135 ADMINISTRATIVE...

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Vacant Properties (1 Apr 2021)

Darragh O'Brien: I propose to take Questions Nos. 148 and 149 together. The details of payments made by Dublin City Council (DCC) to the receivers with regard to the vacant 58 units at Prospect Hill are a matter for DCC. DCC has advised my Department that a scope of works exercise is currently underway to refurbish these apartments with a view to going to tender in Q2 2021.DCC has advised that the payments...

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Departmental Policy Functions (1 Apr 2021)

Darragh O'Brien: The Government announced that additional public health restrictions would apply under Level 5 of the Plan for Living with COVID-19 on 6 January 2021. The additional restrictions required all construction activity to cease from 6pm on Friday 8 January, with a number of exceptions. These measures are set out in The Health Act 1947 (Section 31A - Temporary Restrictions) (Covid-19) (No. 10)...

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Tenant Purchase Scheme (1 Apr 2021)

Darragh O'Brien: The Tenant (Incremental) Purchase Scheme came into operation on 1 January 2016. The Scheme is open to eligible tenants, including joint tenants, of local authority houses that are available for sale under the Scheme. To be eligible, tenants must meet certain criteria, including having a minimum reckonable income of €15,000 per annum and having been in receipt of social housing support...

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Social and Affordable Housing (1 Apr 2021)

Darragh O'Brien: Applications for social housing support are assessed by the relevant local authority, in accordance with the eligibility and need criteria set down in section 20 of the Housing (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 2009 and the associated Social Housing Assessment Regulations 2011, as amended. The 2011 Regulations prescribe maximum net income limits for each local authority, in different bands...

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Departmental Data (1 Apr 2021)

Darragh O'Brien: The scope of the question is very broad and compilation of the information sought would involve a disproportionate amount of time and work, as it would require all areas of my Department's extensive range of activities to be checked in respect of a 20 year period. Based on the information that is readily accessible to my Department in the time available, no specific flows of personal data...

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Data Protection (1 Apr 2021)

Darragh O'Brien: My Department has received no complaints under the heading of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). In terms of data information requests, Article 15 of the GDPR provides for the right of access to personal data and certain information, by data subjects. Details of the requests received are supplied in the table below. All requests were accepted but in some instances the request...