Results 8,041-8,060 of 8,153 for speaker:James Browne
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Local Government and Heritage: Priorities of the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage: Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage (8 Jul 2025)
James Browne: We are doing a lot more than that and Deputy Ó Broin is aware of that. It is not simply based around the square meterage of studios. We are also removing the mandatory mix that has been there. This will allow more units onto a square footage. We are also addressing the areas around lifts and hallways. When you add it all up, including staircases, the number of lifts, etc., you will...
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Local Government and Heritage: Priorities of the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage: Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage (8 Jul 2025)
James Browne: The key thing here is it addresses the viability piece and therefore we will be able to increase-----
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Local Government and Heritage: Priorities of the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage: Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage (8 Jul 2025)
James Browne: I am well able to explain it.
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Local Government and Heritage: Priorities of the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage: Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage (8 Jul 2025)
James Browne: The Deputy does not have to believe me.
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Local Government and Heritage: Priorities of the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage: Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage (8 Jul 2025)
James Browne: Of course.
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Local Government and Heritage: Priorities of the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage: Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage (8 Jul 2025)
James Browne: We have data. We have worked on that data. That is from where we have come up with the figures. We have done an analysis of the data-----
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Local Government and Heritage: Priorities of the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage: Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage (8 Jul 2025)
James Browne: I have no difficulty with sharing the data.
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Local Government and Heritage: Priorities of the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage: Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage (8 Jul 2025)
James Browne: I have no difficulty with sharing that data. That is what we will do.
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Local Government and Heritage: Priorities of the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage: Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage (8 Jul 2025)
James Browne: We will arrange for that data to be shared.
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Local Government and Heritage: Priorities of the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage: Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage (8 Jul 2025)
James Browne: Not in the middle of a session. I am not doing that, no.
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Local Government and Heritage: Priorities of the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage: Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage (8 Jul 2025)
James Browne: We will happily provide that data. We will publish it. There is no difficulty with that. That data will be made available.
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Local Government and Heritage: Priorities of the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage: Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage (8 Jul 2025)
James Browne: I thank the Deputy. As a TD who comes from a rural constituency, I am acutely aware of the necessity for providing water supports in rural Ireland for our villages and provincial towns. We are providing record funding to Uisce Éireann this year. It has increased from €300 million a year to €2.2 billion this year. We will be providing it with even more funding under the...
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Local Government and Heritage: Priorities of the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage: Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage (8 Jul 2025)
James Browne: Uisce Éireann will have the funding to deliver those types of schemes but we also have to facilitate the developers because there are 400-plus villages in that position. If we were waiting for Uisce Éireann to get to every one of them, even if it had the funding, it would take a considerable period. It requires a dual approach, one in which Uisce Éireann does it while also...
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Local Government and Heritage: Priorities of the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage: Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage (8 Jul 2025)
James Browne: One of the challenges we have with water is that in many cases the issue is not actually a planning one but an environmental law issue. Most of our environmental laws come from the European Union and we are, unfortunately or fortunately depending on one's view, quite constrained in how we apply them. The environmental rules are very important. When schemes are held up in planning, it is...
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Local Government and Heritage: Priorities of the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage: Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage (8 Jul 2025)
James Browne: In terms of what kind of assessment does the Deputy want-----
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Local Government and Heritage: Priorities of the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage: Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage (8 Jul 2025)
James Browne: We have given careful consideration to all of these decisions, including dual aspect, the windows and all of the size requirements.
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Local Government and Heritage: Priorities of the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage: Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage (8 Jul 2025)
James Browne: We have given careful consideration to all of this.
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Local Government and Heritage: Priorities of the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage: Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage (8 Jul 2025)
James Browne: I am not sure what kind of analysis the Deputy is referring to. We do a lot of different analyses.
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Local Government and Heritage: Priorities of the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage: Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage (8 Jul 2025)
James Browne: We have done a careful analysis of these. We compared our own standards with general European standards. We saw that our standards were the highest in Europe, in our opinion, and we made the judgment call that we needed to change the specifications so they would be more in line with those in Europe and, in particular, to increase viability. Having the highest specifications for apartments...
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Local Government and Heritage: Priorities of the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage: Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage (8 Jul 2025)
James Browne: I gave careful consideration to any delays there may be. We have close to 50,000 existing planning permissions. We considered what the impact may be if people considered going back in for changes of planning permission. That is why we worked closely with the Attorney General and came up with a proposal whereby most of these changes to specifications can be made within the envelope of the...