Results 23,561-23,580 of 40,897 for speaker:Simon Coveney

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government: Housing Provision (4 Oct 2016)

Simon Coveney: Some €1.7 billion has been provided for housing services under Budgets 2015 and 2016. This has facilitated the delivery of over 13,000 social housing units in 2015, an 86% increase in unit delivery above 2014, and will deliver in excess of 17,000 social housing units this year. To support the implementation of Rebuilding Ireland: Action Plan for Housing and Homelessness, I have...

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government: Departmental Bodies Establishment (4 Oct 2016)

Simon Coveney: The Government’s 2016 Draft National Risk Assessment - Overview of Strategic Risks, was published on 10 June 2016, and is available at the following link:. Since then, the Government has published Rebuilding Ireland: Action Plan for Housing and Homelessness, available at the website www.rebuildingireland.ie. The Plan sets out a practical and implementable set of actions to achieve...

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government: Homelessness Strategy (4 Oct 2016)

Simon Coveney: The solution to the challenge of homelessness, including for those families with children, is to increase the supply of homes as envisioned under Rebuilding Ireland: An Action Plan on Housing and Homelessness. The Action Plan, published on 19 July 2016, aims to deliver 47,000 units of social housing over the period to 2021 through construction, refurbishment, acquisitions and leasing,...

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government: Departmental Staff Rehiring (4 Oct 2016)

Simon Coveney: Retired public and civil servants are engaged from time to time by my Department in areas where specific expertise is required for a short fixed period and these staff provide a level of knowledge, experience and background compatible with such requirements. There are currently 2 former civil or public servants who have been employed in my Department on temporary contracts. The abatement...

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government: Departmental Staff Data (4 Oct 2016)

Simon Coveney: There are 627.34 Whole Time Equivalent staff employed in my Department. This includes two members of staff on secondment from local authorities. This reflects the position following a recent restructuring of my Department, which is now focussed mainly on Housing, Planning, Water, Community and Local Government responsibilities.

Ceisteanna - Questions (Resumed) - Priority Questions: Local Authority Housing Provision (5 Oct 2016)

Simon Coveney: I thank Deputy Ellis for taking the questions for Deputy Ó Broin, who for whatever reason is unable to be here. That is fine. In January 2015, a ministerial direction was put in place that required the Dublin region housing authorities to allocate at least 50% of tenancies under their control to homeless and other vulnerable households, with the authorities in counties Cork, Galway,...

Ceisteanna - Questions (Resumed) - Priority Questions: Local Authority Housing Provision (5 Oct 2016)

Simon Coveney: I agree with all the sentiments. We must do something significant and we are doing so. Tomorrow we will announce how we will spend €5.35 billion on a social housing programme that will add 30% to existing social housing stock nationally in the next five years. It is why we have a raft of measures to bring vacant properties back into use and we have tripled the ambition of the rapid...

Ceisteanna - Questions (Resumed) - Priority Questions: Local Authority Housing Provision (5 Oct 2016)

Simon Coveney: I do not disagree with much of what Deputy Ellis has said and that is why we are ramping up new-build social housing delivery through the local authorities. Last year, as the Taoiseach mentioned earlier, only 74 or 75 local authority houses were built across the whole country. Other local authority housing units were made available through voids being brought back into use and through...

Ceisteanna - Questions (Resumed) - Priority Questions: Local Authority Housing Provision (5 Oct 2016)

Simon Coveney: It will be a combination of local authority and approved housing body, AHB, units, with around 1,200 being built by the local authorities. We are ramping up and by the middle of next year that figure will be significantly increased. However, we must recognise the realities in the meantime. We have to get families who are currently in totally unsuitable accommodation and people who are in...

Ceisteanna - Questions (Resumed) - Priority Questions: Local Authority Staff (5 Oct 2016)

Simon Coveney: Since the publication of Rebuilding Ireland: Action Plan for Housing and Homelessness, the focus has been very much on implementation and driving an acceleration in housing delivery. To this end, I have visited a number of local authorities and have met all the chief executives. I have assured them that they will have the necessary support and resources to deliver on Rebuilding Ireland. ...

Ceisteanna - Questions (Resumed) - Priority Questions: Local Authority Staff (5 Oct 2016)

Simon Coveney: The Deputy asked about extra staff. I have spoken to many CEOs and some of them have said that they need to bump up their staffing levels. Others had already asked my predecessor for additional staffing and had received approval. More than 500 approvals for extra staffing have been granted, mostly in the housing and housing-related areas. I have made it very clear to the chief executives...

Ceisteanna - Questions (Resumed) - Priority Questions: Local Authority Staff (5 Oct 2016)

Simon Coveney: Councils can, of course, add levies to development charges to get certain things done. That has been one of the big problems to date. Many developers have said to me, and I am sure to Deputy Cowen, that they simply could not make the numbers add up if they had to fund a bridge, a road or a new water connection, for example, to a site that may or may not be serviced. The whole point of the...

Ceisteanna - Questions (Resumed) - Priority Questions: Social and Affordable Housing Provision (5 Oct 2016)

Simon Coveney: We are not prescribing that. We are saying we will look at sites on a case-by-case basis. We are asking councils to be ambitious and to use publicly-owned landbanks much more strategically than they have perhaps been used in the past. We want to promote a different way of developing social housing and the communities served by such housing. We want to integrate private housing with social...

Ceisteanna - Questions (Resumed) - Priority Questions: Social and Affordable Housing Provision (5 Oct 2016)

Simon Coveney: Many people are looking for housing. The Deputy mentioned people on the list, but there are many people who are looking to try to buy their own homes. We have to try to cater for everybody and not just for one segment, which seems to be the only segment the Deputy represents. My job is to get more houses built for everybody, including people on social housing lists, people who are...

Ceisteanna - Questions (Resumed) - Priority Questions: Social and Affordable Housing Provision (5 Oct 2016)

Simon Coveney: I am glad to hear it.

Ceisteanna - Questions (Resumed) - Priority Questions: Social and Affordable Housing Provision (5 Oct 2016)

Simon Coveney: It is not.

Ceisteanna - Questions (Resumed) - Priority Questions: Social and Affordable Housing Provision (5 Oct 2016)

Simon Coveney: It is important to correct the record. The Deputy suggested that Part V required 20% social housing, rather than 10% social housing. It was not 20% social housing; it was 10% social housing and 10% affordable housing. The Deputy does not seem to care about affordable housing one way or the other because he does not consider it to be social housing. The first thing he should do is get his...

Ceisteanna - Questions (Resumed) - Priority Questions: Social and Affordable Housing Provision (5 Oct 2016)

Simon Coveney: That is not how Deputy Boyd Barrett sees it, however. We will have many developments progressing at the same time. It seems that the Deputy would prefer small numbers of large-scale social housing developments on big sites creating large mono-tenure developments. I do not think that is how we should be developing the communities of the future. We will continue to take proactive steps to...

Ceisteanna - Questions (Resumed) - Priority Questions: Local Authority Housing Funding (5 Oct 2016)

Simon Coveney: It is a big issue.

Ceisteanna - Questions (Resumed) - Priority Questions: Local Authority Housing Funding (5 Oct 2016)

Simon Coveney: I agree that this is the big issue for me to deal with. It is great that we are talking about these issues, rather than water. While water is a difficult political issue to deal with in some ways, as far as I am concerned, housing is where it is at in terms of changing people's lives. That is why I welcome the fact that housing has been the dominant issue in these questions. All local...