Results 8,801-8,820 of 9,174 for speaker:James Browne
- Select Committee on Housing, Local Government and Heritage: Estimates for Public Services 2025
Vote 34 - Housing, Local Government and Heritage (Further Revised) (2 Oct 2025) James Browne: It was just a technical decision to put it in there but I will get the Deputy a more detailed answer.
- Select Committee on Housing, Local Government and Heritage: Estimates for Public Services 2025
Vote 34 - Housing, Local Government and Heritage (Further Revised) (2 Oct 2025) James Browne: That is correct.
- Select Committee on Housing, Local Government and Heritage: Estimates for Public Services 2025
Vote 34 - Housing, Local Government and Heritage (Further Revised) (2 Oct 2025) James Browne: Our very clear intention is to deliver as many as possible and we are confident in that. If a situation arises where additional funding is needed, it will be sought but I do not expect or anticipate that will be the case.
- Select Committee on Housing, Local Government and Heritage: Estimates for Public Services 2025
Vote 34 - Housing, Local Government and Heritage (Further Revised) (2 Oct 2025) James Browne: That will be assessed as we get closer to the end of the year. It may the case that some funding will not be drawn down until we are into the new year. The key point is-----
- Select Committee on Housing, Local Government and Heritage: Estimates for Public Services 2025
Vote 34 - Housing, Local Government and Heritage (Further Revised) (2 Oct 2025) James Browne: Whatever funding is needed to deliver what housing can be delivered, that funding will be made available.
- Select Committee on Housing, Local Government and Heritage: Estimates for Public Services 2025
Vote 34 - Housing, Local Government and Heritage (Further Revised) (2 Oct 2025) James Browne: It will depend on the prices and what the demand for that funding will be too. Once the year's outturn has been completed and the delivery has been completed, we can assess the situation. Trying to predict at this point exactly what the drawdown will be is-----
- Select Committee on Housing, Local Government and Heritage: Estimates for Public Services 2025
Vote 34 - Housing, Local Government and Heritage (Further Revised) (2 Oct 2025) James Browne: The Deputy will be aware that expenditure does not always neatly fit into a 12-month period of delivery. Some, such as CALF, is forward funded and there will always be a question with local authorities as to when they actually finalise contracts, draw down funds and so on. It is never as neat having a target of X and simply multiplying that out by the cost of those houses.
- Select Committee on Housing, Local Government and Heritage: Estimates for Public Services 2025
Vote 34 - Housing, Local Government and Heritage (Further Revised) (2 Oct 2025) James Browne: At the end of the year and into the start of next year, we will assess what has been requested from the local authorities and what has been delivered and then we will have a very clear picture. If there is a shortfall, it will be very clear at that point. As I said, the delivery of housing does not always neatly fit into one year. At this point in time, it would be quite difficult to make...
- Select Committee on Housing, Local Government and Heritage: Estimates for Public Services 2025
Vote 34 - Housing, Local Government and Heritage (Further Revised) (2 Oct 2025) James Browne: I would not be able to speak to their mindset.
- Select Committee on Housing, Local Government and Heritage: Estimates for Public Services 2025
Vote 34 - Housing, Local Government and Heritage (Further Revised) (2 Oct 2025) James Browne: Absolutely. In fairness to the Department of public expenditure and the Department of Finance, they receive very significant demand from across Government and difficult decisions always have to be made. In my sense of it, they did not have any particular issue with housing. What they would have always said was that their difficulty was in balancing the demands from the different...
- Select Committee on Housing, Local Government and Heritage: Estimates for Public Services 2025
Vote 34 - Housing, Local Government and Heritage (Further Revised) (2 Oct 2025) James Browne: Absolutely. With a new Government, the Department of public expenditure and reform was trying to assess what that funding was, what was available and how to meet that challenge. When you look at what actually ended up being the outturn, where about €1 in every €3 over the next five years is going to be spent on directly delivering housing or on infrastructure to facilitate the...
- Select Committee on Housing, Local Government and Heritage: Estimates for Public Services 2025
Vote 34 - Housing, Local Government and Heritage (Further Revised) (2 Oct 2025) James Browne: No.
- Select Committee on Housing, Local Government and Heritage: Estimates for Public Services 2025
Vote 34 - Housing, Local Government and Heritage (Further Revised) (2 Oct 2025) James Browne: No, I do not believe it affected our delivery of housing.
- Select Committee on Housing, Local Government and Heritage: Estimates for Public Services 2025
Vote 34 - Housing, Local Government and Heritage (Further Revised) (2 Oct 2025) James Browne: No, I do not believe it has led to a delay. We have an open call with AHBs, for example, so there is sometimes confusion between an application coming in and whether we decide to fund a project. Some seem to have the view or position, or misunderstand, that because they have put in an application, there is an entitlement to funding and, therefore, if they do not get the funding within a...
- Select Committee on Housing, Local Government and Heritage: Estimates for Public Services 2025
Vote 34 - Housing, Local Government and Heritage (Further Revised) (2 Oct 2025) James Browne: As there is a bit of maths involved, I would not be able to do that at this short notice but I can attempt to get those numbers for the Deputy.
- Select Committee on Housing, Local Government and Heritage: Estimates for Public Services 2025
Vote 34 - Housing, Local Government and Heritage (Further Revised) (2 Oct 2025) James Browne: We know that inflation in the construction industry, in particular, has driven up costs quite significantly. That has affected the viability challenge around the delivery and why we are having to make a certain amount of important decisions around facilitating the viability and, in turn, affecting the affordability for people to be able to purchase. In terms of taking inflation into...
- Select Committee on Housing, Local Government and Heritage: Estimates for Public Services 2025
Vote 34 - Housing, Local Government and Heritage (Further Revised) (2 Oct 2025) James Browne: The general construction inflation is known and is out there. For particular housing projects, it varies quite substantially depending on the nature of the scheme, its location, the nature of the contracts. How much of a particular project is actually inflation would always be an exceptionally difficult thing to judge. Let us say we agree a contract with, for example, an AHB that has come...
- Select Committee on Housing, Local Government and Heritage: Estimates for Public Services 2025
Vote 34 - Housing, Local Government and Heritage (Further Revised) (2 Oct 2025) James Browne: There could be all sorts of reasons for turning down a project. We have to examine the value for money of any project. For any project, the Department has to look at governance issues, the viability of the project and, if there are developers involved, the capacity of those developers to deliver. There could be all sorts of reasons as to why a project may be delayed. The reality is the...