Results 10,861-10,880 of 15,092 for speaker:Eoin Ó Broin

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Scrutiny of Homeless Prevention Bill 2020, Tenancy Protection Bill 2023 and Dereliction and Building Regeneration Bill 2022: Private Members' Bills (14 Dec 2023)

Eoin Ó Broin: The point I made at the start is that, in some local authorities where we have good officials, they do this.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Scrutiny of Homeless Prevention Bill 2020, Tenancy Protection Bill 2023 and Dereliction and Building Regeneration Bill 2022: Private Members' Bills (14 Dec 2023)

Eoin Ó Broin: In other local authorities it does not happen at all, or in some local authorities some officials do it and some do not.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Scrutiny of Homeless Prevention Bill 2020, Tenancy Protection Bill 2023 and Dereliction and Building Regeneration Bill 2022: Private Members' Bills (14 Dec 2023)

Eoin Ó Broin: Yes.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Scrutiny of Homeless Prevention Bill 2020, Tenancy Protection Bill 2023 and Dereliction and Building Regeneration Bill 2022: Private Members' Bills (14 Dec 2023)

Eoin Ó Broin: In fact, the very point of the legislation is to ensure the good practice of those local authorities who are doing it, either on a part or regular basis, becomes a legal requirement and mainstreams across all. It should happen as a matter of course. Otherwise what happens is that it is likely left to a good housing manager, a good homeless service manager or just a good housing official on...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Scrutiny of Homeless Prevention Bill 2020, Tenancy Protection Bill 2023 and Dereliction and Building Regeneration Bill 2022: Private Members' Bills (14 Dec 2023)

Eoin Ó Broin: Again, it is the opposite. If we take, for example, tenant in situ, when it was reopened in April 2022, it was left to each local authority. In fact, if we look at the circular provided at the time, there was no guidance and certainly no statutory underpinning. As a consequence, from April 2021 through to March or April 2022, there was very little tenant in situand most local authorities...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Scrutiny of Homeless Prevention Bill 2020, Tenancy Protection Bill 2023 and Dereliction and Building Regeneration Bill 2022: Private Members' Bills (14 Dec 2023)

Eoin Ó Broin: There is no statutory obligation on a local authority to provide social housing, affordable housing or homeless services. In fact, if we look at the legislation underpinning all of these things, it states that local authorities "may" provide these things, and generally they provide them in conjunction with the Department. There is nothing in law that compels a local authority to provide...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Scrutiny of Homeless Prevention Bill 2020, Tenancy Protection Bill 2023 and Dereliction and Building Regeneration Bill 2022: Private Members' Bills (14 Dec 2023)

Eoin Ó Broin: It is, and in fact this is an area in which I would like to see the laws strengthened elsewhere. Right now today, there is nothing to compel a local authority, including by homeless services, as the legislation in the 1988 Act uses the word "may" and not "shall". The only requirement for a local authority is to provide a housing action plan. If we take Traveller accommodation as a good...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Scrutiny of Homeless Prevention Bill 2020, Tenancy Protection Bill 2023 and Dereliction and Building Regeneration Bill 2022: Private Members' Bills (14 Dec 2023)

Eoin Ó Broin: Yes.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Scrutiny of Homeless Prevention Bill 2020, Tenancy Protection Bill 2023 and Dereliction and Building Regeneration Bill 2022: Private Members' Bills (14 Dec 2023)

Eoin Ó Broin: May I reply very briefly?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Scrutiny of Homeless Prevention Bill 2020, Tenancy Protection Bill 2023 and Dereliction and Building Regeneration Bill 2022: Private Members' Bills (14 Dec 2023)

Eoin Ó Broin: Senator Fitzpatrick makes an important point and I will not dispute the substance of it, which is that there is a capital budget and a portion of the homes delivered with it, whether bought or delivered, will be for people who are in emergency accommodation. This is not in dispute. The statement I made is factually correct. There is a homeless services budget. It is not a budget for...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Scrutiny of Homeless Prevention Bill 2020, Tenancy Protection Bill 2023 and Dereliction and Building Regeneration Bill 2022: Private Members' Bills (14 Dec 2023)

Eoin Ó Broin: I am fully supportive of the proposition. When the rent pressure zone legislation was introduced in the dying days, if not hours, of the December 2016 Oireachtas term, this was one of the really controversial parts of the Bill. Originally, in fact, I do not think the Government intended to put this provision in at all. There was some pressure. At that time, there was not just a fear but a...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Scrutiny of Homeless Prevention Bill 2020, Tenancy Protection Bill 2023 and Dereliction and Building Regeneration Bill 2022: Private Members' Bills (14 Dec 2023)

Eoin Ó Broin: I think it is six months.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Scrutiny of Homeless Prevention Bill 2020, Tenancy Protection Bill 2023 and Dereliction and Building Regeneration Bill 2022: Private Members' Bills (14 Dec 2023)

Eoin Ó Broin: Yes, from memory, there was a quite a large development, which I am pretty sure was in Dublin 8 - I will dig out the detail - where these exemptions could be used to get vacant possession on eviction.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Scrutiny of Homeless Prevention Bill 2020, Tenancy Protection Bill 2023 and Dereliction and Building Regeneration Bill 2022: Private Members' Bills (14 Dec 2023)

Eoin Ó Broin: Let me check and I will circulate it.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Scrutiny of Homeless Prevention Bill 2020, Tenancy Protection Bill 2023 and Dereliction and Building Regeneration Bill 2022: Private Members' Bills (14 Dec 2023)

Eoin Ó Broin: I am pretty sure of this. I am aware of one instance. I am not saying there has been more than one.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Scrutiny of Homeless Prevention Bill 2020, Tenancy Protection Bill 2023 and Dereliction and Building Regeneration Bill 2022: Private Members' Bills (14 Dec 2023)

Eoin Ó Broin: I do not know if any amendment has been introduced to give effect to this. With all the RTA amendment Bills that had to do with either notice periods or changes to the rent pressure zones, when any of us attempted to introduce amendments to other parts of the Residential Tenancies Act, those amendments were ruled out of order. If I understand correctly, not only does the amendment have to...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Scrutiny of Homeless Prevention Bill 2020, Tenancy Protection Bill 2023 and Dereliction and Building Regeneration Bill 2022: Private Members' Bills (14 Dec 2023)

Eoin Ó Broin: Miscellaneous Bills are different.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Scrutiny of Homeless Prevention Bill 2020, Tenancy Protection Bill 2023 and Dereliction and Building Regeneration Bill 2022: Private Members' Bills (14 Dec 2023)

Eoin Ó Broin: The wonderful thing about a miscellaneous provisions Bill is that if it is, say, the Residential Tenancies Act (amendment) Bill, everything is on the table. However, my Bill, for example, relates to the deferment of tenancy dates. That relates to a very specific bit of the Act. I was very surprised the first time one of my amendments was ruled out of order because my experience had been...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Scrutiny of Homeless Prevention Bill 2020, Tenancy Protection Bill 2023 and Dereliction and Building Regeneration Bill 2022: Private Members' Bills (14 Dec 2023)

Eoin Ó Broin: I have no questions but I have a comment and an observation. The Chair may want to respond to the observation. In the second Part of the Bill, the one-stop shop - as it has been referred to until this point - is such an eminently sensible idea. I cannot count the number of times it has been proposed at an Oireachtas housing committee. If I am not wrong, it was Deputy Barry Cowen who first...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Scrutiny of Homeless Prevention Bill 2020, Tenancy Protection Bill 2023 and Dereliction and Building Regeneration Bill 2022: Private Members' Bills (14 Dec 2023)

Eoin Ó Broin: I understand Deirdre Ní Fhloinn, a former colleague of the Chair's, and Orla Hegarty did a lot of the groundwork for Deputy Cowen on that. Along with Eoin Ó Coffaigh and Mel Reynolds, they had also been making this case over and over on the issue of vacancy and dereliction during the previous Oireachtas. There is a certain frustration which I suspect is shared by the Chair that...