Results 16,781-16,800 of 26,293 for speaker:Darragh O'Brien

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Defective Building Materials (24 Jan 2023)

Darragh O'Brien: I understand that the Question refers to the Remediation of Dwellings Damaged by the Use of Defective Concrete Blocks Act 2022 ('the 2022 Act'). The purpose of the 2022 Act is to implement and give legislative underpinning to a series of measures to improve and enhance the current defective concrete blocks (DCB) grant scheme, as agreed by Government on 30 November 2021. The administrative...

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Housing Provision (24 Jan 2023)

Darragh O'Brien: The delivery of new social housing is planned and implemented by local authorities, working in partnership with housing associations and the construction sector, with funding support from my Department. Following the publication of Housing for All, the Government's housing plan for Ireland, I issued social housing delivery targets to all local authority Chief Executives for the 5 year period...

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Rental Sector (24 Jan 2023)

Darragh O'Brien: I propose to take Questions Nos. 320 and 322 together. The Residential Tenancies Board (RTB) was established as an independent statutory body under the Residential Tenancies Act 2004, as amended, to operate a national tenancy registration system and to resolve disputes between landlords and tenants. Accordingly, the implementation of the new tenancy management system that registers...

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Rental Sector (24 Jan 2023)

Darragh O'Brien: The Residential Tenancies Acts 2004-2022 regulates the landlord-tenant relationship in the rented residential sector and sets out the rights and obligations of landlords and tenants. The Residential Tenancies Board (RTB) was established as an independent statutory body under the Acts to operate a national tenancy registration system and to facilitate the resolution of disputes between...

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Defective Building Materials (24 Jan 2023)

Darragh O'Brien: The purpose of the Remediation of Dwellings Damaged by the Use of Defective Concrete Blocks Act 2022 ('the 2022 Act') is to implement and give legislative underpinning to a series of measures to improve and enhance the current grant scheme, as agreed by Government on 30 November 2021. The administrative areas of the following counties have been designated by the 2022 Act for the purposes of...

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Defective Building Materials (24 Jan 2023)

Darragh O'Brien: The purpose of the Remediation of Dwellings Damaged by the Use of Defective Concrete Blocks Act 2022 is to implement and give legislative underpinning to a series of measures to improve and enhance the current grant scheme, as agreed by Government on 30 November 2021. The administrative areas of the following counties have been designated by the Act for the purposes of the enhanced grant...

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Local Authorities (24 Jan 2023)

Darragh O'Brien: The Local Government (Maternity Protection and Other Measures for Members of Local Authorities) Act 2022 was signed into law by President Michael D. Higgins on 21 December 2022. The Act amends the Maternity Protection Act 1994 to make available maternity leave entitlements to local authority elected members. It also amends the Local Government Act 2001, first, to provide that a casual vacancy...

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Grant Payments (24 Jan 2023)

Darragh O'Brien: My Department has no funding stream that supports geological ground surveys. However, the project in question may be eligible to apply to the Heritage Council’s Community Heritage Grants Scheme, details of which may be found on www.heritagecouncil.ie. Should further information on this scheme be required, arrangements have been put in place by all bodies under the aegis of my...

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Defective Building Materials (24 Jan 2023)

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?. Housing for All, the Government’s national plan on housing to 2030, reiterates...

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Business Supports (24 Jan 2023)

Darragh O'Brien: The information requested is being compiled and will be forwarded to the Deputy in accordance with Standing Orders.

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Housing Schemes (26 Jan 2023)

Darragh O'Brien: As the Deputy will know, 2022 represented the commencement of a very ambitious programme of delivery of affordable homes under the provisions of the schemes which we introduced with the Affordable Housing Act 2021. This saw significant delivery of cost-rental homes by Approved Housing Bodies, AHBs, in particular through the cost-rental equity loan, the first cost-rental and affordable...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Housing Schemes (26 Jan 2023)

Darragh O'Brien: It is not controversial.

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Housing Schemes (26 Jan 2023)

Darragh O'Brien: We will not have the debate on the first home shared equity scheme today but it is equity that purchasers get and it is an extremely popular scheme that is working. As I said, more than 800 approvals have been made already to real households for real homes. That is good. We will break down that data when it is finalised. We will break it down between cost rental, affordable purchase...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Housing Schemes (26 Jan 2023)

Darragh O'Brien: The first cost-rental tenants are actually in place. I met many of those residents. They have long-term, secure tenures with below-market rent. The rent is calculated on the basis of covering the cost of the delivery and management of the development. We have set an income cap of €53,000 net for that scheme. I am looking at changes to the cost-rental scheme and we are working...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Housing Provision (26 Jan 2023)

Darragh O'Brien: As the Deputy knows, Housing for All is our plan to increase the supply of housing across all tenures to an average of 33,000 homes per year. This includes the delivery of 90,000 social homes, 36,000 affordable purchase homes and 18,000 cost rental homes, so it is a very ambitious and badly needed programme. Housing for All is supported by an investment package of over €4 billion per...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Housing Provision (26 Jan 2023)

Darragh O'Brien: The targets under Housing for All are set out year on year. They were set based on very detailed research and input from the sector. It is about building the capacity within the sector to deliver the homes that we need, doing things better and having more people in construction to build the homes we need. We have had about ten to 12 years of significant under-delivery across all tenures...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Housing Provision (26 Jan 2023)

Darragh O'Brien: I will use an example. In 2021, the last full year for which we have published figures, we had just over 5,000 new-build social homes but, overall, just over 9,000. We need to do more than that. In 2022, we set a target of 10,500 overall and we will be very close to that, and the figures on new builds will greatly exceed the figure the Deputy referenced from the Department of Public...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Defective Building Materials (26 Jan 2023)

Darragh O'Brien: It is a very important scheme. I am glad the Deputy referenced that it is an enhanced scheme, an improved scheme on what was there before. We all know its purpose, which is to remediate dwellings damaged by the use of defective concrete blocks. We passed the Act to implement and give legislative underpinning to a series of measures to improve and greatly enhance the current grant scheme...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Defective Building Materials (26 Jan 2023)

Darragh O'Brien: In the first instance, I would like to inform the Deputy that we have to work through this, and I believe people will understand the regulations are important to underpin the scheme and its operation. There is no pause on applications coming through. Anyone who applies to the previous scheme will get the uplift of the new scheme and, thankfully, people are applying and we are seeing an...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Defective Building Materials (26 Jan 2023)

Darragh O'Brien: Yes, it is for defective blocks and I want to be very clear on that. The Minister, Deputy McConalogue, in particular, has been in contact with me, as have other interested Deputies, on that point. I believe there will be a very small number of homeowners in the affected regions who have had work completed. It will have to be certified and invoiced appropriately, etc., for it to access the...