Results 16,281-16,300 of 26,293 for speaker:Darragh O'Brien

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Housing Policy (13 Oct 2020)

Darragh O'Brien: Consistent with the provisions in the Housing (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 2014, the Housing Assistance Payment (HAP) scheme is considered to be a social housing support and consequently households in receipt of a payment under the scheme are not eligible to remain on the main housing waiting list. However, acknowledging that some households on the waiting list, who avail of HAP, have...

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Planning Guidelines (13 Oct 2020)

Darragh O'Brien: A wide range of exemptions from planning permission are already provided for under Section 4 of the Planning and Development Act 2000, as amended, (the Act) and Schedule 2 of the Planning and Development Regulations 2001, as amended, (the Regulations). Such exemptions are provided for when they are considered to be consistent with proper planning and sustainable development. Under Class 1...

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Housing Provision (13 Oct 2020)

Darragh O'Brien: I propose to take Questions Nos. 146 and 147 together. The regeneration of Poolbeg West is the next important step in transforming the Docklands area, given its strategic location east of Grand Canal Dock, with close proximity to important bridge connections to Dublin Port and North Lotts. The extent of vacant brownfield land available at Poolbeg West is significant, at 34 hectares....

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Social and Affordable Housing (13 Oct 2020)

Darragh O'Brien: The statutory basis for the delivery of affordable housing for purchase in the State is Part 5 of the Housing (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 2009, which was commenced in June 2018. Where an affordability challenge has been identified by a local authority together with a viability to deliver more affordable homes, the Serviced Sites Fund is available to sub-vent the cost of facilitating...

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Water Quality (13 Oct 2020)

Darragh O'Brien: Under the Housing (Private Water Supply Financial Assistance) Regulations 2020, the grant scheme to support improvement works for a private water supply has been revised. This revised scheme forms part of the funding investment under the Multi-Annual Rural Water Programme 2019 to 2021. The scheme supports improvement works to a private water supply where, in the opinion of the local...

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Social and Affordable Housing (13 Oct 2020)

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: Fire Stations (13 Oct 2020)

Darragh O'Brien: The provision of fire services in local authority areas, including the establishment and maintenance of fire brigades, the assessment of fire cover needs and the provision of premises, is a statutory function of the individual fire authorities under the provisions of the Fire Services Acts, 1981 and 2003. My Department supports the fire authorities through setting general policy, providing a...

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Defective Building Materials (13 Oct 2020)

Darragh O'Brien: In relation to the Defective Concrete Blocks Grant scheme, Regulations under Sections 2 and 5 of the Housing (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 1979 provide for a grant scheme of financial assistance to support affected homeowners in the counties of Donegal and Mayo to carry out the necessary remediation works to dwellings that have been damaged due to the use of defective concrete blocks,...

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Regeneration Projects (13 Oct 2020)

Darragh O'Brien: I propose to take Questions Nos. 153 to 155, inclusive, together. The Limerick Regeneration Framework Implementation Plan (LRFIP) provides the roadmap for the regeneration of four large and significant residential areas within Limerick City over the coming years, integrating measures relating to the physical, social and economic environment. Good progress has been made to date on...

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Housing Agency (13 Oct 2020)

Darragh O'Brien: The Housing Agency provides a central support service which assesses applications for the Rebuilding Ireland Home Loan on behalf of local authorities and makes recommendations to the authorities to approve or refuse applications. I have asked the Agency to confirm the average turnaround time for applications to be assessed. The average turnaround time (from date received to date returned...

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Housing Assistance Payment (13 Oct 2020)

Darragh O'Brien: The Housing Assistance Payment (HAP) scheme plays a vital role in housing eligible families and individuals. At the end of Q2 2020, almost 79,000 HAP tenancies had been set-up since the scheme commenced, of which there were more than 56,500 households actively in receipt of HAP support and over 32,000 separate landlords and agents providing accommodation to households supported by the...

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Traveller Accommodation (13 Oct 2020)

Darragh O'Brien: My Department publishes a quarterly Social Housing Construction Status Report, which provides information on the status of many of the various social housing new build projects underway nationally. The report includes details of schemes being progressed by the local authorities and Approved Housing Bodies. A dedicated budget is in place to fund the delivery of Traveller-specific...

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Housing Data (13 Oct 2020)

Darragh O'Brien: The Serviced Sites Fund (SSF) grant funds the cost of key enabling infrastructure requirements that will help unlock publicly-owned lands for the delivery thereafter of affordable homes to buy or rent. Where an affordability challenge has been identified by a local authority together with a viability to deliver more affordable homes, the fund sub-vents the cost of facilitating...

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Local Infrastructure Housing Activation Fund (13 Oct 2020)

Darragh O'Brien: As an initiative of the Rebuilding Ireland Action Plan for Housing and Homelessness, the Local Infrastructure Housing Activation Fund (LIHAF) was primarily designed to support housing supply by funding the provision of public off-site infrastructure to relieve critical infrastructure blockages and enable housing developments to be built on key sites at scale. 30 projects received final LIHAF...

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Land Development Agency (13 Oct 2020)

Darragh O'Brien: In September 2018, the Land Development Agency was established on an interim basis by statutory instrument under the Local Government Services (Corporate Bodies) Act 1971, as amended. A General Scheme of the Bill to establish the LDA as a commercial state body was approved by Government for publication, consideration for pre-legislative scrutiny and priority drafting in July 2019. The...

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Social and Affordable Housing (13 Oct 2020)

Darragh O'Brien: Housing First enables homeless individuals with high levels of complex needs to obtain permanent secure accommodation with the provision of intensive housing and health supports to help them maintain their tenancies. The National Implementation Plan for Housing First, published in September 2018, which puts the programme on a national footing, is designed to provide this response, by...

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Youth Homelessness Strategy (13 Oct 2020)

Darragh O'Brien: Supporting individuals and families facing homelessness is a key Government priority. The Programme for Government "Our Shared Future" commits to reducing and preventing homelessness and provides detail on how the Government will approach this challenge. Upon my appointment as Minister, I established a High Level Homelessness Taskforce, to provide a forum for engagement with key...

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Planning Issues (13 Oct 2020)

Darragh O'Brien: I propose to take Questions Nos. 164 and 165 together. Section 35 of the Planning and Development Act 2000, as amended (the Act), which relates to refusal of planning permission for past failures, enables planning authorities to refuse an application for planning permission to those responsible for a previous development where it is satisfied that an applicant, a partnership of which the...

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Rent Pressure Zones (13 Oct 2020)

Darragh O'Brien: The Residential Tenancies Board (RTB) was established as an independent statutory body under the Residential Tenancies Acts 2004-2020, to operate a national tenancy registration system and to facilitate the resolution of disputes between landlords and tenants. Additional powers and functions were conferred on the RTB by provisions in the Residential Tenancies (Amendment) 2019 Act. The...

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Electric Vehicles (13 Oct 2020)

Darragh O'Brien: The EU Energy Performance of Buildings Directive (2018/844/EU) requires Member States to ensure that appropriate infrastructure is installed in all new residential buildings and non-residential buildings, as well as those buildings with more than 10 parking spaces, for the purpose of enabling the installation at a later stage of charging points for electric vehicles (EVs) in such...