Results 9,221-9,240 of 15,555 for speaker:Eoghan Murphy

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Water and Sewerage Schemes Funding (30 Jan 2018)

Eoghan Murphy: I understand from Donegal County Council that the group water schemes (GWS) referred to are proposed extensions to the existing Meenabool/ Dunlewey GWS. My Department’s Multi-annual Rural Water Programme for 2016-2018 includes a measure for the funding of new GWS, which includes extensions to existing schemes. This is addressed through Measure 3 of the programme. In January...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Housing Provision (31 Jan 2018)

Eoghan Murphy: The Government is committed to helping people to achieve the aspiration of home ownership. We recognise that buying a first home is always a challenging prospect but has become increasingly difficult in Dublin and other areas. Building on other initiatives already under way to improve affordability, I announced a number of new affordable housing measures last week. Together with the...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Housing Provision (31 Jan 2018)

Eoghan Murphy: The Deputy asked about the numbers. When I announced the scheme I said that we had identified land and finance for at least 3,000 homes under the affordable purchase scheme, but our ambition is for 10,000 homes. Asking local authorities to identify more land that could be made available for those homes was part of our engagement under the housing summit. The way the scheme is being set up,...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Housing Provision (31 Jan 2018)

Eoghan Murphy: The Deputy asked if housing bodies will have a role. They will have a role in this but it will depend on how the relevant local authority wants to build out the land and the purpose it wants to put it to under the affordable housing scheme. Obviously, Ó Cualann is a housing body and Dublin City Council has worked with it already. As such, we know this can work and we know how it could...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Private Rented Accommodation Standards (31 Jan 2018)

Eoghan Murphy: I thank the Deputy for the question. "Overcrowding" is dealt with in Part IV of the Housing Act 1966, as amended. Minimum standards in rental accommodation apply to all properties let or available to let. Where someone believes that a property is being made available to let in breach of the standards, for example through overcrowding, the matter should be referred to the relevant housing...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Private Rented Accommodation Standards (31 Jan 2018)

Eoghan Murphy: I accept the Deputy's bona fides absolutely on this and when it comes to us all wanting to work together to ensure we get better standards for tenants. What we saw in the RTÉ exposé were human rights abuses perpetrated in our country against people who were not able to defend themselves. One of the things we have looked at with the Residential Tenancies Board is to see how we can...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Private Rented Accommodation Standards (31 Jan 2018)

Eoghan Murphy: We must increase inspections. That is what the funding commitment between now and 2021 is about. We want to get to a point where a property is inspected once every four years approximately. When it comes to a housing assistance payment tenancy, we have a much narrower timeline than that. In that case, the property must have been inspected in the previous 12 months or is to be inspected in...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Local Infrastructure Housing Activation Fund (31 Jan 2018)

Eoghan Murphy: The primary aim of LIHAF is to stimulate and accelerate the early release of land for housing in urban areas with large demand, by opening up these lands with key enabling public infrastructure that would otherwise not be provided in the short term. It was initially proposed that a capped price point would be set on a percentage of the housing. However, in consultation with local...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Local Infrastructure Housing Activation Fund (31 Jan 2018)

Eoghan Murphy: It is important to understand the purpose of the LIHAF funding, which is to have the very large land banks, with over 500 homes per site, opened more quickly and to ensure the public money is returned in a lower cost of houses or an affordable purchase scheme such as I have announced. If one looks at the 1,800 homes which will be built on the 29 sites, on which I have signed off, 50% of them...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Local Infrastructure Housing Activation Fund (31 Jan 2018)

Eoghan Murphy: It is important when considering the Government's policy on the affordability of housing not to look at any one housing policy in isolation. It is important not to look at LIHAF funding only but also at what we are doing with affordable purchase schemes, the Rebuilding Ireland home loan scheme and the different things we are doing to reduce the cost of development. The Deputy likes to focus...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Local Infrastructure Housing Activation Fund (31 Jan 2018)

Eoghan Murphy: -----but all of the evidence is that LIHAF is working for the taxpayer. On the numbers the Deputy gave in his example, the couple would be able to afford to meet the minimum price of €348,000 he mentioned if one were to take into account their combined gross earnings, the size of the loan they could take out, the deposit they would have to have, plus any assistance they would receive...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Local Infrastructure Housing Activation Fund (31 Jan 2018)

Eoghan Murphy: No, I am not talking about the bank of mum and dad but about their own savings and the help to buy scheme which the Government has introduced. The affordability measures are working. Look at what LIHAF is trying to achieve and what it will achieve with State funding. We will get a much bigger bang for our buck than if we had invested the money directly. Furthermore, thousands of homes are...

Other Questions: Home Loan Scheme (31 Jan 2018)

Eoghan Murphy: I propose to take Questions Nos. 61, 62, 85, 92, 96, 117 and 118 together. Last week, I announced a package of initiatives, to help alleviate affordability pressures faced by households, particularly in areas of high housing demand and high accommodation costs. A central element of the measures involved is the introduction of a new Rebuilding Ireland home loan. Following a review of the...

Other Questions: Home Loan Scheme (31 Jan 2018)

Eoghan Murphy: Those figures are different from those the Deputy gave earlier.

Other Questions: Home Loan Scheme (31 Jan 2018)

Eoghan Murphy: The figure of 40% in the original circular was not going to work in terms of getting the sites opened up in time. Instead we have a commitment for affordable houses, in terms of a reduction across every unit on the site or a carve out of a certain number of homes that will roll into the affordable purchase scheme I announced last week. The eligibility criteria applicable to that is an...

Other Questions: Home Loan Scheme (31 Jan 2018)

Eoghan Murphy: I thank the Deputy for his question. I also thank him for welcoming the Rebuilding Ireland home loan scheme. We had staff prepared to deal with queries in a call centre for two weeks but after the first day of operation of the loan scheme we had to double the number because of the level of interest among the people telephoning the helpline to ask questions about how they could apply and...

Other Questions: Home Loan Scheme (31 Jan 2018)

Eoghan Murphy: I thank the Deputy for his question. This was something we considered when we were designing the loan scheme, namely, whether bundles or targets would be given to each local authority, but we thought it might interfere with some of the decisions the credit policy committees would have to make on loan applications in trying to meet their targets or draw down what might be seen as a limited...

Other Questions: Home Loan Scheme (31 Jan 2018)

Eoghan Murphy: I understand the Deputy's interest and recognise his knowledge in this area, but he complains about the cost of house-building and also about the lack of regulation. As someone who comes from the sector, he knows that the more regulation there is the greater the cost burden on builders.

Other Questions: Home Loan Scheme (31 Jan 2018)

Eoghan Murphy: I do not understand the contradiction in the point made by the Deputy. He should not look at any one measure in isolation. The Rebuilding Ireland home loan and affordable purchase schemes are only part of the affordability measures we have introduced. To date, we have introduced the An Bord Pleanála fast-track process to remove time and costs from the process for developers. It is...

Other Questions: Rental Sector Strategy (31 Jan 2018)

Eoghan Murphy: I propose to take Questions Nos. 63 and 83 together. I thank the Deputies for their questions. Against the background of the affordability pressures in the rental market in certain areas, the Government is determined to make affordable or cost rental a major part of the housing system. Under this approach, rents are set at levels to recover the construction costs and facilitate the...