Results 2,961-2,980 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 do not want to interrupt the Deputy but the exits that we track are to tenancies only. If I give a figure for quarterly exits, they are to tenancies. Let us be very clear about that. If someone moves home, that is not captured in the exit figures. The exit figures we produce are with the DHRE, for example, where we are tracking where people are exiting to. The exits are to tenancies...

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

Darragh O'Brien: Contrarian is a good thing. I did not mean that in any derogatory way. It is good that people have different views. When the Deputy reads the commission report, he will see that many of the commissioners had wildly differing views. That is a good thing. I established the commission. I will not go over that. We discussed that in the Dáil. The Deputy knows why we did it. It was to...

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

Darragh O'Brien: I said I would examine the delivery unit in more detail, and I am. I am sceptical about it. I do not want to add another layer to housing delivery. The structure of what the commission is proposing is that the unit will sit in the Department of the Taoiseach with the private sector and so on involved, but we have structures here already. We have planning in place. We have local...

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

Darragh O'Brien: We have asked the agency to cost it. We are going through all the recommendations in detail and I thought it was best to publish the report when it was leaked. I did not want just part of the report to be there. We are going through that. We have asked the Housing Agency to carry out costings on some of the recommendations and to come back. A total of 18 recommendations in particular...

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

Darragh O'Brien: The Housing Agency has not been back to me yet with the timeframe. When I have that, I will let the committee know.

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

Darragh O'Brien: They are not lost. They are funded. We paid the local authorities directly.

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

Darragh O'Brien: 100%. Both Uisce Éireann and the local authorities were fully funded.

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

Darragh O'Brien: I take the point. I am not familiar with that particular case but I am familiar with the issue. It is something I will discuss with Uisce Éireann. However, Uisce Éireann is well funded and its capital plan is advancing. It also has been affected by increased costs on projects and we are working with Mr. Niall Gleeson and his team on that. Regarding particular connections, in...

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

Darragh O'Brien: It will be one or the other and not both. The Deputy is correct. The AHF has up to €150,000 per unit for apartments only. I get that. Fingal County Council is bringing forward a very significant cost-rental scheme at the moment. I also mentioned south Dublin, Waterford and there are others. We are working through the affordable housing fund review to see. We changed CREL and the...

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

Darragh O'Brien: -----and that has actually worked. The local authorities can borrow at a lesser rate as well.

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

Darragh O'Brien: I understand that but we recognise that. We want to see more delivery through the local authorities too and thankfully we are seeing a number of significant schemes. It is something we are looking at through the affordable housing fund review to find anywhere we have been able to make changes that make sense. Obviously, we need approval from other Departments, and one in particular. We...

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

Darragh O'Brien: There are issues for one or two of the AHBs.

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

Darragh O'Brien: We are working through that. We have done a lot of work with them. There were meetings on it as recently as the week before last. We are nearing a resolution. The AHBs recognise that we have made some significant changes. These have been received positively by the sector and have made a difference for the AHBs. The gearing ratio raises particular issues for one or two AHBs and we are...

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

Darragh O'Brien: As with the other affordable schemes, we have worked on that issue with the Law Society of Ireland and the Banking and Payments Federation Ireland and that work will continue.

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

Darragh O'Brien: There is no embargo on local authority recruitment. There are more staff being recruited into local authorities and there is more funding to local authorities than ever. In Deputy Gould's constituency, there is the Knocknaheeny regeneration scheme, which is really significant and which he has not mentioned. In fairness to the Deputy, he has been consistently raising issues around social...

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

Darragh O'Brien: I know the Deputy does, and fair play, but a local authority such as Cork City Council needs to play its part too in that. It has a responsibility.

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

Darragh O'Brien: Good.

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

Darragh O'Brien: There are, one could argue, inconsistencies across the country as to how derelict sites registers operate. We want local authorities to do their job. We have never had a better focus on vacancy. Every local authority has at least one vacant homes officer. We have a vacant homes team as well. There is the urban regeneration and development fund. In fairness, I assume the Deputy was in...

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

Darragh O'Brien: There have been 375 grants drawn down. Does Deputy Gould want us to pay the money up front before people do the work?

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

Darragh O'Brien: Come on. Again-----