Results 15,561-15,580 of 26,293 for speaker:Darragh O'Brien

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Housing Schemes (13 Jul 2022)

Darragh O'Brien: The Tenant (Incremental) Purchase Scheme is open to eligible tenants, including joint tenants, of local authority houses that are available for sale under the Scheme. The scheme is governed by the Housing (Sale of Local Authority Houses) Regulations 2015. These regulations provide for specified classes of houses to be excluded from sale, including those provided to local authorities under...

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Departmental Staff (13 Jul 2022)

Darragh O'Brien: Following the application of the 1 July 2022 FEMPI pay restoration for certain civil service grades, the salary of the Secretary General of my Department is €235,294. The pay scales for the Assistant Secretaries in my Department, effective from 1 February 2022, are set out in Circular 4-2022, a copy of which is available on the Gov.ie website...

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Housing Provision (13 Jul 2022)

Darragh O'Brien: The 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. This includes the delivery of 47,600 new build social homes and 28,500 new affordable homes in the period 2022-2026. Targets for social housing new build homes and acquisitions are set out in the table below. - 2022 ...

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Housing Provision (13 Jul 2022)

Darragh O'Brien: Housing for All, is the Government’s plan to increase the supply of housing to an average of 33,000 per year over the next decade. This includes the delivery of 90,000 social homes, 36,000 affordable purchase homes and 18,000 cost rental homes in the period 2022-2030. Housing for All is supported by an investment package of over €4bn per annum, through an overall combination of...

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Housing Provision (13 Jul 2022)

Darragh O'Brien: Housing for All, is the Government’s plan to increase the supply of housing to an average of 33,000 per year over the next decade. This includes the delivery of 90,000 social homes by 2030. Housing for All is supported by an investment package of over €4bn per annum, through an overall combination of €12bn in direct Exchequer funding, €3.5bn in funding through the...

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Housing Provision (13 Jul 2022)

Darragh O'Brien: The Social Housing Current Expenditure Programme (SHCEP) supports the delivery of social housing by providing financial support to local authorities for the leasing of houses and apartments. Long term lease arrangements can be entered into by either local authorities or approved housing bodies (AHBs) for periods of between 10 and 25 years. The number of social homes delivered under long term...

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Defective Building Materials (13 Jul 2022)

Darragh O'Brien: The Construction Products Regulation (EU) No 305/2011 (CPR) sets out rules for the marketing of construction products in the EU. Where a construction product covered by a harmonised standard (includes concrete blocks, aggregates for concrete, hardcore etc.), is being placed on the EU market, the CPR requires the manufacturer to draw up a ‘declaration of performance’ and affix a...

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Hare Coursing (13 Jul 2022)

Darragh O'Brien: The activity shown in the video supplied appears to show illegal coursing of hares in the wider countryside and not in our National Parks. This practice, along with being unlawful under the Wildlife Acts, has also been linked to other criminal activity. Staff in my Department along with An Garda Síochána have carried out a number of joint operations in order to combat this practice...

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Departmental Staff (13 Jul 2022)

Darragh O'Brien: In line with broader Government policy my Department continues its work to become an employer of choice. Accordingly diversity is encouraged and facilitated in my Department to ensure its composition is reflective of Irish society as a whole. The vast majority of recruitment for my Department is carried out by the Public Appointments Service. However, my Department is strongly committed to...

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Defective Building Materials (13 Jul 2022)

Darragh O'Brien: The Programme for Government sets out a number of commitments in respect of the important policy area of addressing building defects. These include a commitment to examine defects in housing, having regard to the recommendations of the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing’s report "Safe as Houses?" and to assist owners of latent defect properties, by identifying options for those...

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Housing Schemes (13 Jul 2022)

Darragh O'Brien: The First Home Scheme, launched on 7 July, supports first-time buyers in purchasing new houses and apartments in the private market through the use of an equity share model, similar to that employed in the Local Authority Affordable Purchase Scheme. The Scheme aims to support in the region of 8,000 households in acquiring new homes in the private market in the years 2022 to 2026 with an...

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Housing Schemes (13 Jul 2022)

Darragh O'Brien: The First Home Scheme, launched on 7 July, supports first-time buyers in purchasing new houses and apartments in the private market through the use of an equity share model. The Scheme uses regional price ceilings based on the median prices of new build first time buyer homes. This is to temper any inflationary pressures and to target support at the lower part of the price distribution in...

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Housing Provision (13 Jul 2022)

Darragh O'Brien: Housing for All, is the Government’s plan to increase the supply of housing to an average of 33,000 per year over the next decade. Housing for All is supported by an investment package of over €4bn per annum, through an overall combination of €12bn in direct Exchequer funding, €3.5bn in funding through the Land Development Agency and €5bn funding through the...

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Rights of People with Disabilities (13 Jul 2022)

Darragh O'Brien: The Office of Public Works (OPW) owns and/or leases the buildings that my Department currently occupies. My Department is a tenant of these buildings. We share a number of these buildings with other Government Departments and Public Bodies. Any change in the level of access to these buildings, as suggested in the question would be a matter for the OPW. My Department is committed to...

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Rights of People with Disabilities (13 Jul 2022)

Darragh O'Brien: The Disability Consultative Committee (DCC) of my Department was established in 2017 to monitor and review the implementation of actions relating to my Department that are included in the National Disability Inclusion Strategy (NDIS) 2017-2021. Its members include representatives from the Disability Federation of Ireland (DFI), the National Disability Authority (NDA), Inclusion Ireland, the...

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Energy Conservation (13 Jul 2022)

Darragh O'Brien: A new enhanced ten year energy efficiency programme was launched in 2021 in response to a commitment made under the Programme for Government, which called for the 'retrofit' of 500,000 homes to a B2/Cost Optimal Equivalent BER standard by 2030, of which approximately 36,500 are expected to be local authority owned homes. This new programme set a BER performance requirement of...

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Housing Policy (14 Jul 2022)

Darragh O'Brien: Housing for All (published in September 2021) provides a new housing plan for Ireland to 2030 with the overall objective that every citizen in the State should have access to good quality homes through a steady supply of housing in the right locations, with economic, social and environmental sustainability built into the system. The strategy sets out, over four pathways, a broad suite of...

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Water Services (14 Jul 2022)

Darragh O'Brien: My Department funds Irish Water through the annual estimates and budgetary process, which are published in the Revised Estimates each year. As part of Budget 2022, I secured funding of €1.57 billion to support water services. This includes €1.459 billion for domestic water services provision by Irish Water. Of which, €830 million in capital has been allocated, to allow...

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Departmental Schemes (14 Jul 2022)

Darragh O'Brien: I propose to take Questions Nos. 343 and 390 to 392, inclusive, together. My Department introduced an Energy Efficiency Programme that commenced in 2013, with the ambition to fund retrofit on all social homes requiring insulation and energy upgrade works, this programme has seen improved energy efficiency and comfort levels in over 75,000 Local Authority homes over the period 2013 to the end...

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Departmental Legal Cases (14 Jul 2022)

Darragh O'Brien: On 12 November 2019, the Court of Justice of the European Union issued its judgment in case C-261/18 relating to the Derrybrien wind farm in Galway, which followed on from the Court's judgment in case C-215/06. The 2019 judgment ruled against Ireland and imposed a lump sum fine of €5m and a daily fine of €15,000 until compliance is achieved, plus legal costs.  As the Deputy...