Results 8,501-8,520 of 15,555 for speaker:Eoghan Murphy

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Unfinished Housing Developments (7 Nov 2017)

Eoghan Murphy: The 2016 Annual Progress Report on Unfinished Housing Developments, published in March 2017, highlighted that the number of ‘unfinished’ developments had reduced by over 85% from just under 3,000 developments in 2010 to 420 developments in 2016, with 248 developments resolved in 2016 alone. Funding of the resolution process is now centred around...

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Local Authority Housing (7 Nov 2017)

Eoghan Murphy: My Department provides funding to local authorities to acquire a range of properties for social housing use.  The properties involved can range from those in good condition to those that need remediation and may have been vacant.  To ensure a local-led response to such work, responsibility for property acquisitions is delegated to local authorities. To further...

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Mortgage to Rent Scheme Data (7 Nov 2017)

Eoghan Murphy: Mortgage to Rent transactions require the sale of a property by a lender, subsequent to its voluntary surrender by a borrower, to an Approved Housing Body.  As with any property conveyance, charges relating to the property including water charges are required to be discharged prior to the completion of the sale.  The Housing Agency publishes detailed statistics on a...

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Local Authority Housing Data (7 Nov 2017)

Eoghan Murphy: The Voids Programme, introduced in 2014 by my Department, provides additional support to local authorities in preparing vacant units for reletting.  This funding is available as an additional support over and above what local authorities provide themselves towards such work. There were 2,326, 2,696 and 2,090 vacant social homes brought back into productive use in 2014, 2015 and 2016,...

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Planning Issues (7 Nov 2017)

Eoghan Murphy: My Department, under Action 18 of the Strategy for the Rental Sector, has established a Working Group consisting of all the major public stakeholders with interest in Short Term Letting. The Working Group will report to the Minister on the appropriate regulatory approach for short term lettings and the identification of any necessary amendments to legislation required to give effect to such...

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Public Private Partnerships (7 Nov 2017)

Eoghan Murphy: The Social Housing PPP Programme involves an investment with a capital value of €300 million.  It is to deliver 1,500 social housing units in total, via three bundles.  The first bundle, which comprises six PPP sites, is to provide over 500 units in the Greater Dublin Area.  Two of the sites are located in the Dublin City Council area with one each in...

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Approved Housing Bodies (7 Nov 2017)

Eoghan Murphy: The Central Statistics Office (CSO) is responsible under EU law for the reporting of Government finance statistics, including deficit and debt. This includes classifying organisations and transactions according to the legislation underpinning the compilation of national accounts in the European Union through the ‘European System of Accounts’ (ESA 2010). These legally...

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Social and Affordable Housing Data (7 Nov 2017)

Eoghan Murphy: I propose to take Questions Nos. 1362 and 1363 together. Of the 50,000 social housing units to be delivered under the  Rebuilding Ireland Action Plan for Housing and Homelessness, almost 33,500 will be constructed, while 6,500 will be purchased by local authorities and approved housing bodies, directly from the market or through the Housing Agency, with a portion of these being newly...

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Social and Affordable Housing Data (7 Nov 2017)

Eoghan Murphy: The initial target under Rebuilding Ireland was to deliver 47,000 homes, with 11,000 of these to be delivered through acquisition. However, following the first phase of my review of Rebuilding Ireland and with the provision made under Budget 2018 for social housing delivery, there is now a greater emphasis on direct build activity by local authorities and approved...

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: National Planning Framework (7 Nov 2017)

Eoghan Murphy: My Department is in the process of finalising, for publication, a number of reports underpinning the publication of the Ireland 2040: Our Plan draft National Planning Framework. This will include an ESRI Demographic and Econometric modelling report setting out full details in relation to the population and demographic projections. The purpose of both the National...

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Planning Issues (7 Nov 2017)

Eoghan Murphy: Senior Counsel has completed his review of certain planning matters in respect of Donegal County Council and a report was submitted to my Department on 12 June 2017. Legal advice has been sought on a number of points in this regard, including on the issue of publication. I currently await advice from the Attorney General in relation to this. Once all legal advices and a...

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Planning Issues (7 Nov 2017)

Eoghan Murphy: In an ongoing correspondence with my Department the named individual has submitted several alleged instances of planning irregularities to my predecessors. My Department has considered each of these in turn. The bulk of the named individual's allegations have been the subject of a review by Senior Counsel. My Department has received Counsel's report and I await legal advice from the...

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Planning Issues (7 Nov 2017)

Eoghan Murphy: In an ongoing correspondence with my Department the named individual has submitted several alleged instances of planning irregularities to my predecessors. The bulk of the named individual's allegations have been the subject of a review by Senior Counsel. My Department has received Counsel’s report and I await legal advice from the Attorney General in that respect. Other allegations...

Water Services Bill 2017: Report Stage (Resumed) and Final Stage (8 Nov 2017)

Eoghan Murphy: I will not delay the Bill much longer. I thank Deputies for their co-operation in dealing with it in the past few months. I thank the water charges committee for the extensive work it did, as well as the expert group and the joint Oireachtas committee for the time they took to consider the Bill. I do not view it as a victory for the people. I view it as political parties and politicians...

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Wind Energy Guidelines (8 Nov 2017)

Eoghan Murphy: I propose to take Questions Nos. 217 and 219 together. My predecessor as Minister, in conjunction with my colleague, the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment, announced an emerging "preferred draft approach" to the review of the 2006 Wind Energy Development Guidelines in June 2017. A copy of the announcement is available on my Department’s website...

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Water Charges Administration (8 Nov 2017)

Eoghan Murphy: The Water Services Bill 2017 is currently being considered by the Oireachtas. The Bill provides for Irish Water to make refunds to customers who paid domestic water charges since 1 January 2015. In making the refunds the guiding principle for Irish Water will be to make refunds directly to the account holder. In the instance where a Management Company is the Irish Water account holder and...

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Social and Affordable Housing Provision (8 Nov 2017)

Eoghan Murphy: The Government recognises the housing affordability pressures faced by households with low to moderate income in parts of the country where housing costs are highest. Therefore, housing affordability has been examined by my Department, in consultation with the Housing Agency, local authorities and other stakeholders as part of the targeted review of Rebuilding...

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Local Authority Housing Standards (8 Nov 2017)

Eoghan Murphy: The recent findings of the European Committee of Social Rights (ECSR) by the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) are being taken very seriously and Ireland will provide a formal reply to the findings shortly. It is important to note that the Committee found no violations by Ireland in respect of many of the key provisions of the Human Rights Charter, including Articles...

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Commencement of Legislation (8 Nov 2017)

Eoghan Murphy: Housing Services Plans are provided for in sections 14 -18 of the Housing (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 2009, which has not been commenced. Section 14 requires that each housing authority make a Housing Services Plan setting out the objectives which the housing authority considers to be reasonable and necessary for the provision of housing services having regard to the requirements of the...

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Vacant Sites Levy (9 Nov 2017)

Eoghan Murphy: The Urban Regeneration and Housing Act 2015 introduced a new measure, the vacant site levy, which is aimed at incentivising the development of vacant, under-utilised sites in urban areas. Under the Act, planning authorities are required to establish a register of vacant sites in their areas, beginning on 1 January 2017, and to issue annual notices to owners of vacant sites by 1 June 2018 in...