Results 18,441-18,460 of 26,320 for speaker:Darragh O'Brien

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Water Services (6 Jul 2023)

Darragh O'Brien: The Water Services (Amendment) Act 2022 was published in December of last year. This Act provides for the establishment of Uisce Eireann as the stand-alone national water services authority. In terms of governance, the authority will be audited by the Comptroller and Auditor General, and will be accountable to the Public Accounts Committee, in recognition of the level of Exchequer...

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Housing Provision (6 Jul 2023)

Darragh O'Brien: I propose to take Questions Nos. 20 and 72 together. Under Housing for All, the Government aims to deliver 54,000 affordable homes between now and 2030, to be facilitated by local authorities, Approved Housing Bodies, the Land Development Agency and through the First Home Scheme. The LDA is tasked with delivering social and affordable homes in a number of ways. Firstly, it manages the...

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Housing Policy (6 Jul 2023)

Darragh O'Brien: The National Development Plan (NDP) is the rolling capital programme linked to the National Planning Framework (NPF), the overarching spatial strategy for the development of Ireland to 2040. The NPF includes a range of objectives to support the delivery of housing to meet population targets, as informed by independent modelling undertaken by the ESRI. Government commenced the process to...

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Wastewater Treatment (6 Jul 2023)

Darragh O'Brien: Uisce Éireann has statutory responsibility for all aspects of water services planning, delivery and operation at national, regional and local levels. The scope, prioritisation and progression of individual projects is a matter for Uisce Éireann and is approved through its own internal governance structures. The Programme for Government supports the uptake of Uisce Éireann's...

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Housing Provision (6 Jul 2023)

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 and 54,000 affordable 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,...

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Housing Policy (6 Jul 2023)

Darragh O'Brien: The Government approved the commencement of the process to revise the National Planning Framework (NPF) last month. An Expert Group has been appointed to undertake a high-level review of the NPF and it is expected that the work of the group will conclude with the submission of their report to the Minister over the summer. As part of the revision process, the full suite of results from...

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Housing Provision (6 Jul 2023)

Darragh O'Brien: I propose to take Questions Nos. 28, 57 and 96 together. Details on the number of households qualified for social housing support in each local authority administrative area is provided in the annual statutory Summary of Social Housing Assessments (SSHA). SSHA reports since 2016 are available at including the most recent summary conducted in November 2022. The following table details the...

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Housing Provision (6 Jul 2023)

Darragh O'Brien: Data on purchase of homes by household buyers, including fist time buyers, are available on the CSO website. The most recent data published by the CSO for the period to April 2023 are available at Data - CSO - Central Statistics Office. The CSO data show almost 50,000 dwelling purchases by households at market prices for the year to end-April 2023, up 6% year-on-year. The data also show, on a...

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Fire Safety (6 Jul 2023)

Darragh O'Brien: The public consultation on proposed amendments to Part B of the Building Regulations and the associated Technical Guidance Document relating to fire safety closed on 21 April 2023. Work is underway in my Department to examine each submission made and to consider if an amendment to the proposed Part B of the Building Regulations relating to fire safety and/or the associated draft...

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Housing Provision (6 Jul 2023)

Darragh O'Brien: My Department publishes programme level statistics on a quarterly basis on social housing delivery activity. This data is published on the statistics page of my Department’s website, at the following link: . This provides information for a number of categories of social housing delivery and also contains the targets for each local authority during each year of the programme. Longford...

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Homeless Accommodation (6 Jul 2023)

Darragh O'Brien: My Department publishes quarterly progress reports which are based on quarterly performance reports submitted by the nine regional lead authorities responsible for the administration of homeless services at local level. These quarterly performance reports include details of the numbers of individuals prevented from entering emergency accommodation, and those exiting emergency accommodation...

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Housing Provision (6 Jul 2023)

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 and 54,000 affordable 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,...

Housing and Homelessness: Motion [Private Members] (11 Jul 2023)

Darragh O'Brien: Not true.

Housing and Homelessness: Motion [Private Members] (11 Jul 2023)

Darragh O'Brien: I move amendment No. 1: To delete all words after "That Dáil Éireann" and substitute the following: "notes that: — the Government is taking the challenges in the rental sector and the increase in the number of people accessing homeless supports in recent months very seriously and, through the implementation of Housing for All: A New Housing Plan for Ireland, the...

Housing and Homelessness: Motion [Private Members] (11 Jul 2023)

Darragh O'Brien: Home permissions, completions and purchases, as well as first-time buyers and mortgage drawdowns, are all at record levels. There was an annual increase of 37.8% in the total number of new homes approved for planning permissions in quarter one of 2023 compared with quarter one of the previous year.

Housing and Homelessness: Motion [Private Members] (11 Jul 2023)

Darragh O'Brien: I did not interrupt the Deputy. He should try to behave himself for once. There were 3,059 commenced in May 2023, an increase of 11.4% over the same period. Since January, nearly 13,000 new homes have been commenced, which is the highest ever for this period. A total of 6,716 new homes were completed in the first three months of this year, a near 20% increase on quarter one last year....

Housing and Homelessness: Motion [Private Members] (11 Jul 2023)

Darragh O'Brien: The number of homes purchased by all buyer types has gone from a low of just 25,699 in 2011 to more than 52,600 last year. First-time buyers remain the largest segment, by volume, with more than 25,000 drawdowns in 2022 and many of them accessing the schemes the Government has brought forward. More home mortgages were approved for first-time buyers in May this year than in any other month...

Housing and Homelessness: Motion [Private Members] (11 Jul 2023)

Darragh O'Brien: Some 10,263 social homes were delivered in 2022, representing a 12% increase on 2021, the highest annual output of social homes in decades and the highest level of delivery of new-build social homes since-----

Housing and Homelessness: Motion [Private Members] (11 Jul 2023)

Darragh O'Brien: It is a pity the Deputy was not here to ask questions last week and most of his colleagues were not here either. Please afford me the opportunity of responding on the Sinn Féin motion. A strong pipeline of social and affordable housing is now in place, with more than 19,000 new build social homes in the pipeline and during-----

Housing and Homelessness: Motion [Private Members] (11 Jul 2023)

Darragh O'Brien: A Chathaoirligh Gníomhach, it is impossible to respond to-----