Results 15,421-15,440 of 27,055 for speaker:Darragh O'Brien

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Land Development Agency (6 May 2021)

Darragh O'Brien: Dublin City Council are currently working on progressing a mixed tenure development at Emmet Road (formally known as St. Michael's estate). In June of 2020 my Department provided Stage 1 Approval-in-Principle for the development of 109 social housing units on this mixed tenure site. My Department has not been engaged in any discussions or process regarding the transfer of the land to the...

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Local Authority Housing (6 May 2021)

Darragh O'Brien: Local authorities are responsible for the provision of social housing in their areas, and, as such, decide on the number and specific types of dwellings to provide in their developments. Targets are not set for local authorities in respect of the numbers of new dwellings to be provided for older persons in each development. Local authorities would instead consider the housing need as per...

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Local Authority Housing (6 May 2021)

Darragh O'Brien: Increasing the supply of public, social and affordable homes is priority of this Government. The Programme for Government includes a commitment to deliver 50,000 new social homes with a focus on new build homes. This commitment was underpinned by investment of €3.3bn towards housing programmes in Budget 2021. Subject to the impact of COVID-19, this investment will fund delivery of...

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: House Prices (6 May 2021)

Darragh O'Brien: I propose to take Questions Nos. 68 and 74 together. The purchase prices of homes are influenced by a significant range of market factors, including income, location, demand, supply, building size, and specification etc. As affordability is, broadly speaking, a factor of household income, there is no single or universally applicable price-point which denotes affordability. The CSO...

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Housing Policy (6 May 2021)

Darragh O'Brien: I have serious concerns of instances, recently reported, where investors are inappropriately purchasing entire completed houses estates, preventing their sale to families and first time buyers. Institutional Investors are regulated by the Department of Finance. The issue of sale and of purchase of land or housing are matters for the Minister for Justice. I am working with my Government...

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Local Authority Housing (6 May 2021)

Darragh O'Brien: My Department supports local authorities to deliver new social homes utilising vacant and derelict properties through the Buy & Renew scheme and the Repair & Leasing Scheme. To date approximately 600 new social homes have been made available under Buy & Renew and I am keen that local authorities utilise this opportunity alongside the delivery of social homes through...

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Local Authority Housing (6 May 2021)

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 2020, shows that 61,880 households were assessed as qualified for and being in need of social housing support. This represents a decrease of 6,813 households or...

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Local Authority Housing (6 May 2021)

Darragh O'Brien: My Department supports all local authorities in their provision of new social homes through a range of programmes, with delivery targets set and published for each local authority. For 2021, I have set targets for Kildare County Council of 558 new social homes via build programmes and 153 homes through leasing. The precise projects that will be advanced over the course of 2021, are a matter...

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Home Loan Scheme (6 May 2021)

Darragh O'Brien: The Rebuilding Ireland Home Loan Scheme is designed to enable credit worthy first-time buyers to access sustainable mortgage lending to purchase new or second-hand properties. The Rebuilding Ireland Home Loan provides first-time buyers with access to mortgage finance that they may not otherwise have been able to afford at a higher interest rate. More details of this are set out in the FAQ's...

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Covid-19 Pandemic (6 May 2021)

Darragh O'Brien: The Residential Tenancies Act 2020 was enacted and came into operation on 24 October 2020. The Act aims to mitigate the impact of Covid-19 on tenants and to support the Government's efforts to restrict the movement of people in order to suppress the spread of this virus. The Act modifies the operation of the Residential Tenancies Acts 2004-2020 to prevent any notices of termination served...

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Housing Assistance Payment (6 May 2021)

Darragh O'Brien: The minimum standards for rental accommodation are prescribed in the Housing (Standards for Rented Houses) Regulations 2019. All landlords have a legal obligation to ensure that their rented properties comply with these Regulations. Responsibility for enforcement of the Regulations rests with the relevant local authority. Local authorities report to my Department on numbers of overall...

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Housing Policy (6 May 2021)

Darragh O'Brien: On being appointed, as Minister I undertook a review of co-living development and indicated in a letter dated 23 November 2020 to all local authorities, An Bord Pleanála and the Office of the Planning Regulator, that the preferred approach was to restrict commercial co-living development in Ireland. This preferred approach was subject to the requisite environmental assessment processes,...

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Housing Policy (6 May 2021)

Darragh O'Brien: The Planning and Development and Residential Tenancies (Amendment) Act 2016 introduced the Rent Predictability Measure to moderate rent increases in those parts of the country where rents are highest and rising fastest, resulting in great difficulty for households finding affordable accommodation. In these areas, called Rent Pressure Zones (RPZ), rents can only increase by a maximum of 4% per...

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Housing Policy (6 May 2021)

Darragh O'Brien: This Government is absolutely committed to ensuring that affordable, quality housing solutions are available to everyone in Irish society and this is reflected in the Programme for Government. Institutional Investors are regulated by the Department of Finance. The issue of sale and of purchase of land or housing are matters for the Minister for Justice. I have serious concerns of instances,...

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Local Authority Staff (6 May 2021)

Darragh O'Brien: In the first instance, the allocation of staff within a local authority is an executive matter for the Chief Executive of that local authority. Each of the 31 local authorities has a Vacant Homes Officer. At present there are three local authorities that have one person working in a full-time capacity as a Vacant Homes Officer. In all of the remaining 28 local authorities the officer...

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Housing Policy (6 May 2021)

Darragh O'Brien: A range of work is underway to deliver Cost Rental housing in Ireland, which has been designed in line with similar sectors that successfully provide affordable rental accommodation elsewhere in Europe. This new form of rental tenure will see rents linked to the cost of provision of homes, rather than being subject to the pressures of the open market. Rents will increase only in line with...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Mica Redress Scheme (5 May 2021)

Darragh O'Brien: I thank Deputy Calleary for his constructive engagement. Many Members have engaged in a constructive way. I would have expected them to do so because we are not trying to be confrontational. Rather, we are trying to work through these issues. If people want to set up a campaign about the situation, that is fine, but I am interested in solutions. Deputy Calleary has engaged with us in...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Mica Redress Scheme (5 May 2021)

Darragh O'Brien: I thank Deputy Mac Lochlainn for the question. I have met many of those homeowners. I was actually in Donegal last summer, as the Deputy will know, when we opened the scheme for applications. I have quite a lot of personal experience with this type of remediation scheme. I was involved with the pyrite remediation scheme, going back to 2011, with the late Minister of State, Shane McEntee,...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Mica Redress Scheme (5 May 2021)

Darragh O'Brien: I am not being confrontational on this in any way, shape or form. I have engaged extensively with the group and with homeowners in the area. To put this in context regarding the cost of remediation, the Deputy referenced the pyrite remediation scheme. The average cost of remediation under this scheme was between €60,000 and €80,000 per home. The average cost in respect of...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Housing Issues (5 May 2021)

Darragh O'Brien: It is about the delivery of the capital plan. The Deputy is correct, in that Mitchelstown, Glanmire and Midleton have capacity issues. He has raised this with me before. We need to see the delivery of the capital programme. I am happy to meet the Deputy regarding these specific issues in the towns in question. We will not be able to deliver the affordable homes we need for working people...