Results 2,941-2,960 of 25,713 for speaker:Darragh O'Brien

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Housing for All: Discussion (13 Jun 2024)

Darragh O'Brien: I will behave myself, even if the Deputy has not.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Housing for All: Discussion (13 Jun 2024)

Darragh O'Brien: I agree.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Housing for All: Discussion (13 Jun 2024)

Darragh O'Brien: I was very clear when we brought it in, with the approval of all three Government parties and the support of Cabinet, that this would be a time-bound measure and that it would not continue for ever. The scaling down of the waiver is basically to send a very clear signal that at the end of this year, the development levy waiver ends completely and to show that the phasing of that is ending...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Housing for All: Discussion (13 Jun 2024)

Darragh O'Brien: Yes, it is very clear. That has been understood by them as well.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Housing for All: Discussion (13 Jun 2024)

Darragh O'Brien: I completely agree. It shows the flexibility that I referred to. We need to have that approach, particularly when we are seeing increasing costs and recognising the need to reduce them. We worked very well with the Minister for Public Expenditure, National Development Plan Delivery and Reform, Deputy Donohoe and the Minster for Finance, Deputy McGrath to get an agreement on that. It has...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Housing for All: Discussion (13 Jun 2024)

Darragh O'Brien: Not yet. I can give overall vacancy. I want to say that the Senator played a key role in that. I remember visiting Waterford with the Senator. We looked at a lot of vacant public houses, many of them very substantial buildings. For some reason, they were not included in the original commercial to residential planning exemptions. It has been done really successfully and Waterford led the...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Housing for All: Discussion (13 Jun 2024)

Darragh O'Brien: We do not have figures for 2023?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Housing for All: Discussion (13 Jun 2024)

Darragh O'Brien: There has been a greater uptake as well. It can be seen in the quarterly reports that we are now including the vacant homes that are coming back in. I want to emphasise that the voids are not part of this. I always resisted that. The voids are separate. They are important under social housing. Actual housing stock that is coming back into use is being reported on a quarterly basis. We...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Housing for All: Discussion (13 Jun 2024)

Darragh O'Brien: I thank the Senator. We are all acutely aware of the issues that An Bord Pleanála went through. We have stabilised the organisation. There were as few as five members on its board at one stage. We basically had to stabilise and reform it. Part of the Planning and Development Bill that will be going into the Seanad is about the reform of An Bord Pleanála, which will become an...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Housing for All: Discussion (13 Jun 2024)

Darragh O'Brien: That system is under development to go across local authorities in respect of planned maintenance. We have brought voids back into use, but I accept that work in this regard is sporadic and is not consistent across the board. I also see properties that have been vacant far too long. In 2023, we brought 2,481 voids back into use. The year before, the number was 2,273. In 2021, it was...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Housing for All: Discussion (13 Jun 2024)

Darragh O'Brien: Just so the Senator is aware, €46 million is being recouped to local authorities for the voids programme. They make submissions to us on what voids they can get through. Some are long-term voids and some are relets. We do keep a really close eye on it. The Minister of State, Deputy Dillon, might want come in here.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Housing for All: Discussion (13 Jun 2024)

Darragh O'Brien: This is an important issue. The Senator is perfectly right that my priority was to ensure that we could keep the service going for the service users and the staff. Many really good people work for the trust. That is why we took the unprecedented step of providing funding to the tune of €15 million. There are two investigations being carried out by the Charities Regulator and the...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Housing for All: Discussion (13 Jun 2024)

Darragh O'Brien: I fully understand the interest the committee has in this matter. At the appropriate time, once the investigations have concluded and the elements of the reports that can be published are published, my officials and I certainly will engage directly with the committee in this type of format.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Housing for All: Discussion (13 Jun 2024)

Darragh O'Brien: I agree with the Cathaoirleach that the product being built now is substantially superior to what was built previously. It is very different from what we had in the past. We are producing A-rated homes using the best of technologies. The continued expansion of modern methods of construction, MMC, much of which is happening by way of off-site construction, is coupled with the increased use...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Housing for All: Discussion (13 Jun 2024)

Darragh O'Brien: I am more satisfied now than I was previously. I engage with the agency on a regular basis. We are seeing own-delivery housing from the agency, including St. Kevin's in Cork, Devoy Barracks and Shanganagh. We will see more of that. I want to see the Colbert Quarter scheme in Limerick progressing. That development is really important. The LDA is moving ahead and scaling up its delivery....

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Housing for All: Discussion (13 Jun 2024)

Darragh O'Brien: I am certainly open to it and I have met a couple of groups. We legislated for community-led housing for the first time under the Affordable Housing Act 2021 so it is recognised. It is a small delivery but there are some very impressive groups. There is one group in particular that I met on two occasions and my officials met very recently. I will not mention the group's name at this...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Housing for All: Discussion (13 Jun 2024)

Darragh O'Brien: As the Deputy knows, I have never shirked nor will I ever shirk my responsibility for the continued work we need to do about homelessness or those in homeless emergency accommodation. I mentioned it at every step so there was no particular reason I did not and I expected the issue to come up in this meeting. The really key to the issue is supply. First, I will answer the question about...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Housing for All: Discussion (13 Jun 2024)

Darragh O'Brien: I will be very quick. The purchase of homes and the tenant in situ scheme have been excellent preventative measures as well where we are ending insecure HAP tenancies. Last year we completed the purchase of more than 1,800 homes throughout the country. These were people who were on HAP tenancies, in the main, and now those tenancies have been converted to social housing tenancies. We are...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Housing for All: Discussion (13 Jun 2024)

Darragh O'Brien: If someone moves back home, that is also an exit if they are out of emergency accommodation.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Housing for All: Discussion (13 Jun 2024)

Darragh O'Brien: If people are exiting emergency accommodation the vast majority are exiting into permanent, secure tenancies and into HAP, AHB and LA tenancies. Another thing we are doing, and there has been some criticism by the way and I want to mention it, is around the long-term leasing targets. I am certainly phasing out long-term leasing because we are delivering more homes but the long-term...