Results 13,241-13,260 of 15,555 for speaker:Eoghan Murphy

Seanad: Residential Tenancies (Amendment) (No. 2) Bill 2018: Second Stage (14 May 2019)

Eoghan Murphy: Home sharing is allowed; short-term letting is not.

Seanad: Residential Tenancies (Amendment) (No. 2) Bill 2018: Second Stage (14 May 2019)

Eoghan Murphy: If it helps the Senator, we are going to have a debate on the regulations themselves that flow from these amendments to the legislation, before they are finalised.

Seanad: Residential Tenancies (Amendment) (No. 2) Bill 2018: Second Stage (14 May 2019)

Eoghan Murphy: I thank everyone for the contributions they have made. In particular, I thank those who stayed after they spoke to engage in the debate. When I asked the Chair if there was a time limit on my response, he said "No." I am very sorry if I go on too long because I know people have had a long day. When I speak in this Chamber, I like to go through each Senator's contribution and respond in...

Seanad: Residential Tenancies (Amendment) (No. 2) Bill 2018: Second Stage (14 May 2019)

Eoghan Murphy: The 70% figure relates to those landlords who own just one property. I think that is what Senator Mullen meant. His point was that most landlords in this country own just one property. He was commenting on how we talk about landlords. Maybe this relates to the points that have been made about the Irish psyche. Perhaps the word "landlord" has a connotation that does not apply to landlords...

Seanad: Residential Tenancies (Amendment) (No. 2) Bill 2018: Second Stage (14 May 2019)

Eoghan Murphy: We are acting on the advice of the RTB in terms of what is a priority for the first Bill and what can wait until the second Bill. The issue of deposits was high up on the list a few years ago but has fallen. That is not to say that we will fail to deal with it but, in the interim, something else has happened which is interesting. The interest market has gone in a different direction. The...

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Homelessness Strategy (15 May 2019)

Eoghan Murphy: As part of the implementation of Construction 2020 – A Strategy for a Renewed Construction Sector, a Housing Supply Coordination Taskforce for Dublin was established in June 2014 and comprises of representatives from my Department, each of the four Dublin local authorities, NAMA and other agencies. The focus of the Taskforce is to address supply-related issues relating to the...

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Shared Ownership Scheme (15 May 2019)

Eoghan Murphy: In 2011, the Government announced the standing down of all affordable housing schemes, including the shared ownership scheme. Following a review of the shared ownership scheme undertaken in 2013, my Department together with the Housing Agency, the Housing Finance Agency and local authorities, considered the affordability issues facing some borrowers, who purchased properties under the shared...

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Housing for People with Disabilities Provision (15 May 2019)

Eoghan Murphy: My Department issued Stage 3 pre-tender approval in November 2018 for a proposal under the Capital Assistance scheme to provide accommodation for persons with a disability adjacent to the school referred to. The proposal will involve the redevelopment of a property previously used as a day care facility, to provide a five bedroomed unit to permanently accommodate four residents and a...

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Water Supply (15 May 2019)

Eoghan Murphy: The Eastern and Midlands Water Supply Project has been in development since the mid-1990s, originally under Dublin City Council and under Irish Water since January 2014. It is the first comprehensive upgrade of Ireland’s water infrastructure in over 60 years. An additional 330 million litres of treated water a day is estimated to be needed in the Greater Dublin and Eastern and...

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Local Authority Funding (15 May 2019)

Eoghan Murphy: The Rebuilding Ireland Home Loan launched on 1 February 2018. Prior to its launch, an initial tranche of €200 million of long-term fixed-rate finance was borrowed by the Housing Finance Agency to provide funds for the scheme to local authorities. When the Rebuilding Ireland Home Loan was initially being developed, it was estimated that the drawdown of loans under the scheme would...

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Water and Sewerage Schemes Status (15 May 2019)

Eoghan Murphy: Details of the measures being funded under the Multi-annual Rural Water Programme 2019-2021 were notified to local authorities by my Department on 8 February 2019. Local authorities were invited to submit their bids for the funding of schemes or projects in their functional areas, with the deadline for receipt of proposals set as 14 March 2019. Westmeath County Council has...

Seanad: Residential Tenancies (Amendment) (No. 2) Bill 2018: Committee Stage (15 May 2019)

Eoghan Murphy: In the first instance I will address the idea of rushing legislation and the question of priorities. When we were originally drafting this legislation, I wanted to draft a Bill that would receive cross-party support so that we could move it efficiently, though not too quickly, through the Houses, given the changes we know we need to make in the rental sector. When I first introduced the...

Seanad: Residential Tenancies (Amendment) (No. 2) Bill 2018: Committee Stage (15 May 2019)

Eoghan Murphy: The debate is not being guillotined. I am absolutely at the disposal of the House and will be here until the early hours of morning to get through every issue in detail, if that is what Members. It is not a problem. On the timing, I do not want to be in this position with Members; as I said, I do not think it is fair on them. Senator Murnane O'Connor defends better and more eloquently...

Seanad: Residential Tenancies (Amendment) (No. 2) Bill 2018: Committee Stage (15 May 2019)

Eoghan Murphy: I believe the public floor is already there. A one-month deposit is the norm in the vast majority of cases. I am not saying we do not need to legislate for it. This brings us back to Senator Craughwell's point that there is a great deal to do around the deposit area. There is a lot we need to do to make sure tenants are not being unfairly treated from a financial perspective in a number...

Seanad: Residential Tenancies (Amendment) (No. 2) Bill 2018: Committee Stage (15 May 2019)

Eoghan Murphy: I thank Senators for their contributions and the amendments tabled. The daft.iereport was mentioned. This type of information is helpful but we have to recognise that these are the renting prices being asked, not agreed. It is a much smaller data set than actual rents agreed and registered with the RTB. It produces its index quarterly on what the state of rent is in different parts of the...

Seanad: Residential Tenancies (Amendment) (No. 2) Bill 2018: Committee Stage (15 May 2019)

Eoghan Murphy: As the Senator is aware, I do not rule amendments out of order.

Seanad: Residential Tenancies (Amendment) (No. 2) Bill 2018: Committee Stage (15 May 2019)

Eoghan Murphy: On section 9, obviously, people who are paying close attention to this, as all Senators present are, understand that the first designated rent pressure zones in Dublin and Cork were due to expire at the end of this year. Rather than waiting until the last minute to extend them, given the unforeseen delays which can occur in these Houses, as was discussed earlier, it is better to extend them...

Seanad: Residential Tenancies (Amendment) (No. 2) Bill 2018: Committee Stage (15 May 2019)

Eoghan Murphy: I listened to the Senator at those meetings. The points she made were correct and we are changing the qualifying criteria. The calculation used involved rent being above the national average - which included and still includes Dublin - and having above 7% rent inflation in four of the past six quarters. We recognised that it was very unlikely that more areas would come into a rent pressure...

Seanad: Residential Tenancies (Amendment) (No. 2) Bill 2018: Committee Stage (15 May 2019)

Eoghan Murphy: Unfortunately, I am only now reading the amendments that were ruled out of order. I do not have a say in the ruling in or out.

Seanad: Residential Tenancies (Amendment) (No. 2) Bill 2018: Committee Stage (15 May 2019)

Eoghan Murphy: For the first time. On the amendment, there might be some confusion and I will try to clarify it. Recognising the boundary change in Cork and the other legislation that came through this House extending the boundary of the city, that takes into account areas that were already RPZs. No area is going to lose its designation as an RPZ as a result of the boundary change. I have to read the...