Results 6,221-6,240 of 11,114 for speaker:Damien English
- Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Tenant Purchase Scheme Administration (29 Jun 2016)
Damien English: There are three incremental purchase schemes currently in operation for new and existing local authority houses and for local authority apartments. The new tenant purchase scheme for existing local authority houses, to which the Deputy refers, came into operation on 1 January 2016 and it is open to eligible tenants, including joint tenants, of local authority houses that are available for...
- Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Tenant Purchase Scheme Administration (29 Jun 2016)
Damien English: I agree with Deputy Cowen. I would have thought more would have come forward too, but we are only in the first six months of the scheme. I will be honest with the Deputy in that not many people are knocking at my door saying the scheme does not suit them. On the face of it, it is quite a good scheme with quite generous discounts which are now based on a person's income, unlike the...
- Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Tenant Purchase Scheme Administration (29 Jun 2016)
Damien English: I have not yet had the chance to review the Bill Fianna Fáil is bringing forward. Regarding Part V units, which I meant to address during the first part of my reply to the question, I do not necessarily agree with the Deputy's views. The Department has a very clear view on this as well, and it is a view I will share until someone convinces me otherwise or that we are wrong on this....
- Other Questions: Irish Water (29 Jun 2016)
Damien English: It is not that simple.
- Other Questions: Housing Policy (29 Jun 2016)
Damien English: I thank the Deputy for the question. In the context of social housing provision, my Department has undertaken analysis in respect of the average costs associated with the delivery of a range of differently sized social housing units, both in terms of construction costs and all-in costs. These costs are based on an analysis of returned data from local authorities on social housing schemes...
- Other Questions: Housing Policy (29 Jun 2016)
Damien English: One more line might just help the answer. Built into the plan is a gathering of information from all sides and stakeholders on the costs of construction. That includes those in the business, those who work for developers and those with various skills as well as departmental officials across Government. There is a lot of analysis there and we going deeply into the figures to see what we can do.
- Other Questions: Housing Policy (29 Jun 2016)
Damien English: If it is of help to the Deputy, I note that the programme for Government and the action plan for housing being developed are focused on increasing the supply of housing both in the private and social markets by a combination of all the various arrangements. 2 o’clock Part of that is ensuring houses are affordable and available to people in the right place, facilitating them where...
- Other Questions: Housing Policy (29 Jun 2016)
Damien English: I will make a couple of observations. The Deputy only hears what she wants to hear. The Minister, Deputy Simon Coveney, and I have repeatedly said we wanted to increase greatly the supply of housing being built by local authorities. Has the Deputy missed that?
- Other Questions: Housing Policy (29 Jun 2016)
Damien English: One of the Minister's first acts was to meet all of the local authorities to ask them how they would ramp up supply and what would be needed across government to make that happen. As the Deputy may have missed that, I will be clear - that is what we want to do. However, we also recognise that we need more houses across the system. The Deputy might not like calling it a housing "market",...
- Other Questions: Housing Policy (29 Jun 2016)
Damien English: -----young people of all ages who want to use their skills. They want to work. They are not sitting at home waiting to increase profits. They want to work on sites. I accept that a percentage are involved in the speculative market, but the majority want to go to work and build houses and will settle for a small margin on that work.
- Other Questions: Housing Policy (29 Jun 2016)
Damien English: Exactly. That is what we are trying to fix.
- Other Questions: Housing Policy (29 Jun 2016)
Damien English: There is a range of reasons across the system. We will change the situation. That is our job. It will involve a major ramping up in the supply of social housing delivered through local authorities and the rebuilding of the capacity of the Department and local government to make this happen.
- Other Questions: Housing Policy (29 Jun 2016)
Damien English: Access to land for a range of developers, as well as local authorities, is one of the barriers. In most cases though local authorities have sites available, but there are delays in the system, issues in accessing finance, off-balance sheet concerns, etc. Affordable land is an issue for everyone in the long term. To deliver affordable housing, we need affordable land. There is some...
- Other Questions: Housing Policy (29 Jun 2016)
Damien English: Yes. In general, access to land at the right price is an issue for all providers. It has a major effect on the end price.
- Other Questions: Urban Renewal Schemes (29 Jun 2016)
Damien English: The new programme for partnership Government sets out the ambitious priority attached to urban regeneration by the new Government. This is an area in which we wish to engage, specifically by redesigning and enhancing the current scheme. A series of specific actions has been set out as to how it is proposed to facilitate the regeneration of our urban centres, many of which were adversely...
- Other Questions: Urban Renewal Schemes (29 Jun 2016)
Damien English: I did refer to CPOs.
- Other Questions: Urban Renewal Schemes (29 Jun 2016)
Damien English: I accept that I may speak a little fast.
- Other Questions: Urban Renewal Schemes (29 Jun 2016)
Damien English: However, in listing the actions we are considering I clearly stated that we were considering the possibility of "mandating local authorities with better land management powers, including the possibility of additional CPO capabilities". I am sorry if that was not clear.
- Other Questions: Urban Renewal Schemes (29 Jun 2016)
Damien English: I also noted the reference to compulsory purchase orders in the Deputy's question. While local authorities have some powers in the area of compulsory purchase orders, they clearly do not consider them to be sufficiently strong. We are willing to examine this issue. Other State body stakeholders have CPO powers which are not being used. We will see what we can do to increase the use of...
- Other Questions: Urban Renewal Schemes (29 Jun 2016)
Damien English: Deputies Cowen and Lawless outlined the issues the Department intends to examine. We will consider a range of carrot and stick measures. Deputy Lawless will be familiar with the Supreme Court decision on a case arising in County Kildare. That decision affects any change to legislation governing CPOs that we may consider. This is a complicated area that involves a number of statutes and...