Results 8,761-8,780 of 11,114 for speaker:Damien English

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Tenant Purchase Scheme Data (18 Sep 2019)

Damien English: I thank the Deputy for outlining our work in the past few years. I clarify again that the tenant purchase scheme is open, working and successful. It is a favourable scheme and quite a few people have managed to avail of it in order to buy their homes in recent years. It is not as if the scheme is closed. We are talking about making changes to it and we debated different possible...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Tenant Purchase Scheme Data (18 Sep 2019)

Damien English: The purpose of the review was to allow the Department to look into this scheme in order to see what changes might be made, if any. There have been discussions about that. Regarding when the review was finished, it is within our Department and it has been feeding into discussions over the last year. There has been much debate in that context and many issues now have to be checked. It may...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Tenant Purchase Scheme Data (18 Sep 2019)

Damien English: I want to be very clear. We have discussed this matter on many occasions in this House, at the committee and elsewhere.

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Tenant Purchase Scheme Data (18 Sep 2019)

Damien English: The review relates to the first 12 months of the 2016 scheme. Tenant purchase schemes have been in operation since the 1970s. The commitment was to review the first 12 months. Many issues have been raised and we will bring forward the suggested changes and recommendations as part of an overall package. It is not to be addressed on its own and many issues have fed into the scheme and the...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Tenant Purchase Scheme Data (18 Sep 2019)

Damien English: I did not sense that there was any row. I just want to clarify that the scheme is open, working very well and it is a-----

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Tenant Purchase Scheme Data (18 Sep 2019)

Damien English: -----very generous and favourable scheme. People have been delighted to use it. Many people have told us not to change the scheme, while others have indicated that we should change it. That is where the debate will go in the weeks ahead. If we want to look at properly reviewing tenant purchase schemes, however, there also has to be an examination of succession rents, succession rights,...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Local Authority Housing Maintenance (18 Sep 2019)

Damien English: The management and maintenance of local authority housing stock, including pre-letting repairs to vacant properties, is a matter for each individual local authority under the Housing Act 1966. Local authorities return vacant properties to use through their own resources, but my Department also continues to provide Exchequer support, under the voids programme, for properties that require...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Local Authority Housing Maintenance (18 Sep 2019)

Damien English: The issue of student accommodation is separate from this conversation. It is a very different issue. I am happy to discuss it with Deputy O'Sullivan because a lot of progress has been made on student accommodation. Some 6,000 new units have been built, 6,000 are currently being built and 7,000 are planned. Great progress has been made. It is probably unfair to students to generalise by...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Local Authority Housing Maintenance (18 Sep 2019)

Damien English: Again, Deputy O'Sullivan has addressed many issues in one question. People often mention cases concerning HAP properties. There are more than 40,000 HAP tenancies. We have not received 40,000 complaints. The majority of these tenancies work well and the tenants are happy. They want something permanent in the long run and that is fine. Some do and some do not. HAP tenancies are often...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Housing for People with Disabilities Provision (18 Sep 2019)

Damien English: Housing needs for people with mental health difficulties are considered in the national housing strategy for people with a disability. The strategy sets out the Government’s framework for housing delivery for people with disabilities and it was developed in conjunction with the Government’s mental health policy, A Vision for Change. Flowing from the strategy, local...

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Local Authority Housing (18 Sep 2019)

Damien English: Choice Based Letting is a method whereby available social housing stock is let by being openly advertised by local authorities to persons on the social housing waiting list. This allows qualified applicants to 'register an interest' in available homes. Applicants can act on their own initiative to respond to adverts and express an interest in dwellings that they would like to live in,...

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Building Energy Rating Compliance (19 Sep 2019)

Damien English: New social housing, in common with all new dwellings, must comply with building regulations and current regulations require a typical dwelling to have a Building Energy Rating (BER) of A3.  Some 98% of all new dwellings are built to this standard. The Nearly Zero Energy Building (NZEB) performance for new dwellings represents an improvement in energy and carbon dioxide...

Housing (Regulation of Approved Housing Bodies) Bill 2019: Second Stage (24 Sep 2019)

Damien English: I am glad the Deputy made it.

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Foreshore Issues (24 Sep 2019)

Damien English: The compliance with all relevant legislative or regulatory provisions is a matter in the first instance for the individual, company or local authority undertaking work. Section 3 of the Foreshore Act provides for the licencing of removal or disturbance of beach material from State Owned Foreshore, the area from the mean high water mark to the seaward limit of the territorial seas, where...

Housing (Regulation of Approved Housing Bodies) Bill 2019: Second Stage (Resumed) (25 Sep 2019)

Damien English: That is not the case.

Housing (Regulation of Approved Housing Bodies) Bill 2019: Second Stage (Resumed) (25 Sep 2019)

Damien English: There is not one such case. Let us call a spade a spade. If the Deputy has a letter to prove his assertion, he should bring it to the House.

Housing (Regulation of Approved Housing Bodies) Bill 2019: Second Stage (Resumed) (25 Sep 2019)

Damien English: There have not. That is a serious accusation.

Housing (Regulation of Approved Housing Bodies) Bill 2019: Second Stage (Resumed) (25 Sep 2019)

Damien English: I have the opportunity to conclude the debate and I will try to deal with some of the questions raised as well. There were wide and varied matters raised and although they may not all relate to the Bill, I will try to address some of them. I thank all Deputies for their contributions to the debate, particularly those who put the work in to see what is in the legislation and what we are...

Housing (Regulation of Approved Housing Bodies) Bill 2019: Referral to Select Committee (25 Sep 2019)

Damien English: I move:That the Bill be referred to the Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government pursuant to with Standing Orders 84A(3)(a) and 149(1).

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Pyrite Remediation Programme Implementation (25 Sep 2019)

Damien English: I propose to take Questions Nos. 169 and 176 together. In October 2018, the Government approved in principle the development of 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 defective concrete blocks. In May 2019, agreement was reached...