Results 15,861-15,880 of 26,290 for speaker:Darragh O'Brien

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Homeless Persons Data (24 Nov 2020)

Darragh O'Brien: I thank the Deputy for raising this very important issue, which we also discussed six weeks ago. There have been, as he rightly said, a number of deaths recently of people who were either rough sleeping or accessing homeless services. Every death is a tragedy. I have already and will extend again my sympathy to their families, friends and to the service providers who get to know many of...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Homeless Persons Data (24 Nov 2020)

Darragh O'Brien: No one wants to categorise people within this. All I am saying is that I used the example of that gentleman and there are others, who are people who were accessing homeless services and counted in these terrible figures and shocking statistics. That is just to simply state a fact. I chair the north Dublin regional drugs and alcohol task force and I am aware of the need to increase funding....

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Homeless Persons Data (24 Nov 2020)

Darragh O'Brien: I understand that.

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Homeless Persons Data (24 Nov 2020)

Darragh O'Brien: We are still on the question raised by Deputy Ó Broin at the moment and I know that Deputy O’Callaghan has a question on that.

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Homeless Persons Data (24 Nov 2020)

Darragh O'Brien: That is okay.

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Homeless Persons Data (24 Nov 2020)

Darragh O'Brien: That is okay. I am just asking because the Deputy has a question on a particular issue, just a couple of questions down on the list. Returning to Deputy Ó Broin’s point, we need to look at how these deaths are reported. I am going to do that and am giving a commitment here, as well as when the report is completed. The appropriate place for that is the Joint Committee on...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Social and Affordable Housing (24 Nov 2020)

Darragh O'Brien: I do not know if the Deputies are aware of the history of the site. It has been in council ownership since around 2007. It is 2020 now. When one says to just let the local authorities build it, it is 13 years later and they have not done so.

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Social and Affordable Housing (24 Nov 2020)

Darragh O'Brien: Deputy Ó Broin's party was chair of the housing strategic policy committee in Dublin City Council-----

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Social and Affordable Housing (24 Nov 2020)

Darragh O'Brien: -----up until the local elections last year so he can ask Daithí Doolan and his friends there who he controls about why they did not vote for certain housing developments across the city. To get back to the Deputy's point, the Government is interested in letting local authorities build. We raised the discretionary cap to €6 million to allow local authorities to do that. That...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Social and Affordable Housing (24 Nov 2020)

Darragh O'Brien: The non-adversarial nature that is professed by the Deputies opposite has already broken down in advance of me receiving any proposal whatsoever regarding the Oscar Traynor Road development. What this Government will do in the budget that the Opposition voted against is use the single largest housing budget in the State's history, with €3.3 billion for housing and 12,750 new social,...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Homeless Persons Supports (24 Nov 2020)

Darragh O'Brien: I visited many of the outreach centres all across Dublin. I chair the homelessness delivery task force, which is made up of many of our homeless partners such as Focus Ireland, Depaul Ireland, Dublin Simon Community, Peter McVerry Trust and many others, and we meet on a biweekly basis. Funding is not an issue. We have an issue with the funding for some of the section 10 organisations,...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Homeless Persons Supports (24 Nov 2020)

Darragh O'Brien: A priority for me and for this Government is to continue the fight against homelessness. That is the reason we have put unprecedented resources into that particular area. Thankfully, even since early April this year, we have seen a continued reduction in both family and singles homelessness and in respect of children. That is a trend we want to continue. That is the reason we need to ramp...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Social and Affordable Housing (24 Nov 2020)

Darragh O'Brien: I propose to take Questions Nos. 44 and 67 together. We took this question earlier and it could not be linked because Deputy Ó Broin's was a priority question but we actually did that. The 253 social homes were fully funded by the Department and €8.6 million or €8.7 million in the serviced sites fund was available to go towards the affordable housing. It is a...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Social and Affordable Housing (24 Nov 2020)

Darragh O'Brien: It is what it is.

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Social and Affordable Housing (24 Nov 2020)

Darragh O'Brien: We have binned the non-adversarial approach and now someone asks me for unrealistic proposals. We may have just heard one but, having said that, I am interested in results and building homes. That is what we are about. I am not sure how many homes the Deputy or his ideology has built in this State. It is probably none. What we are about is delivering homes for people and for families. I...

Ceisteanna - Questions (Resumed) - Priority Questions: Social and Affordable Housing (24 Nov 2020)

Darragh O'Brien: I thank the Deputy. I do not want to constrain what the city council will do over the coming weeks by giving my own view on the solution or the way forward with this. All I would say is that there are a number of workable options available and we should not constrain the thinking within the council on what those would be. My Department had provided significant funding under the original...

Ceisteanna - Questions (Resumed) - Priority Questions: Social and Affordable Housing (24 Nov 2020)

Darragh O'Brien: We will work with others on it but it will not be either of those. We will not be held to ransom by a small number of councillors with ideological opposition to certain different types of housing tenure.

Ceisteanna - Questions (Resumed) - Priority Questions: Social and Affordable Housing (24 Nov 2020)

Darragh O'Brien: The Deputy has just arrived. Will he relax? I think he doth protest too much. Let us deal with this from the perspective that we can resolve this situation. We have an opportunity. We need to develop the lands the State has better and faster. We cannot constrain or restrain the ambition that some local authorities will show in regard to how they deem it fit to develop their lands....

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Homeless Persons Supports (24 Nov 2020)

Darragh O'Brien: I thank the Deputy for his question. He is correct that day services are crucial. My Department's role is to provide a framework of policy, legislation and funding to support housing authorities to address homelessness locally. To that end, I secured a further €60 million in a Supplementary Estimate for additional Covid-19 measures just the week before last, bringing the total...

Ceisteanna - Questions (Resumed) - Priority Questions: Land Development Agency (24 Nov 2020)

Darragh O'Brien: The Deputy regularly has a tendency to think and presume the worst of what will happen but I am convinced we will get this Bill right. The Bill will be published shortly so I would say in advance of raising criticism based on his own thoughts, the Deputy might wait until he sees the published Bill. I will certainly through the course of the Second Stage debate and on Committee and Report...