Results 12,861-12,880 of 26,245 for speaker:Darragh O'Brien

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Rental Sector (28 Sep 2021)

Darragh O'Brien: A number of targeted measures and initiatives are being developed to provide better security of tenure and greater rent certainty for tenants, as well as enhancing the supports and services available to both tenants and landlords through the Residential Tenancies Board (RTB) particularly, to facilitate the development of a more vibrant and sustainable rental sector. Inter alia, these...

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Housing Schemes (28 Sep 2021)

Darragh O'Brien: The Affordable Housing Act 2021 was enacted by the President on 21 July 2021. On 18 August, I signed the Affordable Housing Act 2021 (Commencement) (Parts 1 and 3) Order 2021, which commenced Parts 1 and 3 of the Act from 19 August, and brought into operation the Cost Rental elements of the Act. On 19 August 2021, I made the Affordable Housing Act 2021 (Cost Rental Designation)...

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Housing Schemes (28 Sep 2021)

Darragh O'Brien: The implementation of Cost Rental is being supported by the new Cost Rental Equity Loan (CREL) scheme, under which Government loans to Approved Housing Bodies (AHBs) on favourable terms will finance up to 30% of the capital costs of new homes for Cost Rental. CREL was allocated €35m under Budget 2021. The Housing Finance Agency also made available €100m to AHBs in very...

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Housing Provision (28 Sep 2021)

Darragh O'Brien: I propose to take Questions Nos. 378, 381, 382 and 391 together. The recently published Housing for All strategy is the Government’s plan to increase the supply of housing to an average of 33,000 per year over the next decade. The annual targets are for the delivery of a total of 88,400 new build social homes, 53,800 new affordable homes and 170,000 private homes in the period...

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Housing Provision (28 Sep 2021)

Darragh O'Brien: Under Action 4.12 of Housing for All, in the period to December 2021 local authorities will be preparing Housing Action Delivery Plans to include social and affordable housing where necessary (affordable purchase and cost rental). This will allow each Local Authority to determine the affordability constraint in their area based on the Housing Need and Demand Assessment. The Housing for...

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Departmental Strategies (28 Sep 2021)

Darragh O'Brien: Housing for All: A New Housing Plan for Ireland is a whole-of-Government plan that will require a deep level of collaboration throughout its lifetime. The implementation of Housing for All has already begun. There are 213 objectives in this plan, all of which will be delivered according to the dates outlined in the plan itself. The first progress report on Q3 2021 actions is currently being...

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: House Prices (28 Sep 2021)

Darragh O'Brien: House price inflation is measured in the Residential Property Index compiled by the CSO which is published monthly, and covers all market purchases of houses and apartments by households. My Department reviews this data monthly, along with other market trends. Housing supply has been impacted by Covid-19. The periods of lockdown since early 2020 have reduced construction activity...

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Housing Provision (28 Sep 2021)

Darragh O'Brien: Details on the number of households qualified for social housing support in each local authority administrative area are provided in the annual statutory Summary of Social Housing Assessments (SSHA). The most recent summary, conducted in November 2020, shows that 61,880 households were assessed as qualified for and being in need of social housing support. This represents a decrease of 6,813...

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Housing Schemes (28 Sep 2021)

Darragh O'Brien: The Government’s commitment to increase the supply of public housing was underpinned in Budget 2021, which provided €3.3 billion to deliver housing programmes this year. This funding will support social and affordable housing delivery, along with the continued implementation of a broad range of programmes providing targeted support to meet housing need. My Department...

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Departmental Strategies (28 Sep 2021)

Darragh O'Brien: I propose to take Questions Nos. 390 and 392 together. The Programme for Government – Our Shared Future – sets out the objective that everybody should have access to sustainable, good quality housing to purchase or rent at an affordable price, built to a high standard, and located close to essential services, offering a high quality of life. Under Action 4.12 of Housing...

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Housing Schemes (28 Sep 2021)

Darragh O'Brien: My Department regularly publishes information on the number and value of (i) local authority loan approvals and (ii) local authority loan drawdowns. Local authority approval means that an official letter of offer has been sent to a borrower (and therefore relates to a specific property and loan amount). Local Authority drawdowns to Q1 2021 is available at the following link, which will be...

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Housing Schemes (28 Sep 2021)

Darragh O'Brien: Details on the number of households qualified for social housing support in each local authority area is provided in the annual statutory Summary of Social Housing Assessments (SSHA). The most recent summary, conducted in November 2020, shows that 61,880 households were assessed as qualified for and being in need of social housing support. This represents a decrease of 6,813 households or...

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: House Prices (28 Sep 2021)

Darragh O'Brien: Housing supply has been impacted by Covid-19. The periods of lockdown since early 2020 have reduced construction activity and placed limitations on the ability to conduct normal sales activity, and this has impacted on house prices. The considerable growth in household savings, related to the public health restrictions which reduced consumption, also seems likely to be contributing to recent...

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Housing Schemes (28 Sep 2021)

Darragh O'Brien: Details in relation to the number of approved applicants for adaptation works by local authority for the years in question are not collated by my Department. This information may be available directly from the local authorities. However, details of the grants paid for all local authorities up to 2020, are available on my Department's website at the following link:...

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Local Authorities (28 Sep 2021)

Darragh O'Brien: In respect of the Disabled Persons Grants (DPG) Scheme (LA Tenants), all local authorities were asked to submit details of their work proposals and related funding requirements for 2021 earlier this year. These work proposals were evaluated and the 2021 DPG allocations issued to local authorities in May whereby all works that could be completed in 2021 were approved. Details of which can be...

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Fire Stations (28 Sep 2021)

Darragh O'Brien: The provision of a fire service in its functional area, including the establishment and maintenance of a fire brigade, the assessment of fire cover needs and the provision of fire station premises, is a statutory function of individual fire authorities under the Fire Services Acts, 1981 and 2003. My Department supports the fire authorities through setting general policy, providing a central...

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Housing Schemes (28 Sep 2021)

Darragh O'Brien: The objective of the Local Infrastructure Housing Activation Fund (LIHAF) is to provide public off-site infrastructure to relieve critical infrastructure blockages. This enables the accelerated delivery of housing on key development sites in Dublin and in urban areas of high demand. LIHAF is designed to specifically address the issue of housing supply, a crucial factor in terms of moderating...

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Housing Policy (28 Sep 2021)

Darragh O'Brien: Details on Part V social housing delivery for each local authority are included in social housing statistics published by my Department. This data is available to the end of Quarter 2 2021 and is available on the statistics page of my Department’s website, at the following link: www.gov.ie/en/collection/fd048-affordable-housing-and-part-v -statistics/. The table below, sets out an...

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Housing Schemes (28 Sep 2021)

Darragh O'Brien: The newly revised ten year Energy Efficiency Retrofit Programme launched in 2021 is designed around the Programme for Government commitment to retrofit 500,000 homes to a B2/Cost Optimal BER standard by 2030, of which approximately 36,500 of those homes are expected to be local authority homes. A target of 2,400 social homes for upgrade works has been set for 2021, 750 of which relate...

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Housing Provision (29 Sep 2021)

Darragh O'Brien: Since 2007 it has been a requirement that all new dwellings, including local authority owned social homes, have renewable energy systems installed, with a requirement for all new dwellings to achieve Nearly Zero Energy building performance being introduced in 2019. In  2020 the Programme for Government included a commitment to retrofit approximately 500,000 homes by...