Results 2,981-3,000 of 15,555 for speaker:Eoghan Murphy

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Departmental Advertising Expenditure (6 Mar 2019)

Eoghan Murphy: I propose to take Questions Nos. 314 and 315 together. Press and public relations functions, including the placing of advertisements, are generally undertaken by my Department's Press Office. The engagement of external expertise is only considered where the issues involved require expert skills or capabilities that are not readily available within my Department. The details requested in...

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Homeless Persons Data (6 Mar 2019)

Eoghan Murphy: I propose to take Questions Nos. 316 and 317 together. My Department's role in relation to homelessness involves the provision of a national framework of policy, legislation and funding to underpin the role of housing authorities in addressing homelessness at local level. Statutory responsibility in relation to the provision of accommodation and associated services for homeless persons rests...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Rebuilding Ireland - Action Plan for Housing and Homelessness: Discussion (6 Mar 2019)

Eoghan Murphy: I thank the Chair and members for the opportunity to appear before the committee to provide an update on the progress made in terms of the implementation of Rebuilding Ireland by the end of 2018. I am joined by Mr. John McCarthy, Secretary General, and assistant secretaries Ms Maria Graham, Ms Mary Hurley and Mr. Paul Lemass. As I have stated on many occasions, supporting families and...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Rebuilding Ireland - Action Plan for Housing and Homelessness: Discussion (6 Mar 2019)

Eoghan Murphy: I thank the Senator for his questions. I thank him for welcoming the staff. He will also know Maria Graham, who has moved from the water team to the team dealing with housing and planning. With regard to affordability, we are about to finalise the regulations to give the scheme of priority for access for people who apply to a local authority. I am waiting for feedback from a couple of...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Rebuilding Ireland - Action Plan for Housing and Homelessness: Discussion (6 Mar 2019)

Eoghan Murphy: Absolutely, I can do that; it is no problem. The serviced sites fund of €43 million for 1,400 homes was allocated at the end of last year. We will do a second call, I hope in the last week of March or the first week of April. That is the current timeline for the second call. In Dublin and Cork, where the money has already been approved, we will see work getting under way this...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Rebuilding Ireland - Action Plan for Housing and Homelessness: Discussion (6 Mar 2019)

Eoghan Murphy: Yes.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Rebuilding Ireland - Action Plan for Housing and Homelessness: Discussion (6 Mar 2019)

Eoghan Murphy: The LDA wants to lodge planning applications for other sites this year.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Rebuilding Ireland - Action Plan for Housing and Homelessness: Discussion (6 Mar 2019)

Eoghan Murphy: Everything we do in housing policy, including every bit of money we spend, is having a very direct impact on the level of homelessness. We are preventing people from moving into emergency accommodation or helping them to move out of it. We are putting actual supports in place and supporting the building of more homes that people can live in or rent. We saw very big increases in the numbers...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Rebuilding Ireland - Action Plan for Housing and Homelessness: Discussion (6 Mar 2019)

Eoghan Murphy: We have graphed annual trends. In 2016, 2017 and 2018, the graph rose very steeply and, over the course of 2018, the rise was less steep and then reached a plateau.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Rebuilding Ireland - Action Plan for Housing and Homelessness: Discussion (6 Mar 2019)

Eoghan Murphy: No, but that is not the point that I made.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Rebuilding Ireland - Action Plan for Housing and Homelessness: Discussion (6 Mar 2019)

Eoghan Murphy: I made a point about the past two months. I am not saying it is a trend but, if it continues to be a trend, it will be positive. I made a point about the 12 months of 2018 compared with the previous year and the year before that. The statistics show that, in 2016 and 2017, there were huge increases of people entering emergency accommodation. The net increase in 2018 was significant but it...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Rebuilding Ireland - Action Plan for Housing and Homelessness: Discussion (6 Mar 2019)

Eoghan Murphy: Yes. House prices are still increasing but nowhere near as much as they were as a result of the supply increase in social housing and the economy generally. For the same reason, we did not see as many presentations into emergency accommodation in 2018 as we saw in 2017 and 2016. My point about the past two months is not that it is a trend but, if those figures repeat and more people are...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Rebuilding Ireland - Action Plan for Housing and Homelessness: Discussion (6 Mar 2019)

Eoghan Murphy: That is correct.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Rebuilding Ireland - Action Plan for Housing and Homelessness: Discussion (6 Mar 2019)

Eoghan Murphy: I can provide it for the Deputy. I will address the Deputy's question about affordability. We all know the Ó Cualann Cohousing Alliance which is still doing what it does in providing affordable housing.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Rebuilding Ireland - Action Plan for Housing and Homelessness: Discussion (6 Mar 2019)

Eoghan Murphy: I will come to that. It is important to note that this is happening and a local authority is doing it. It does not mean that other local authorities cannot be doing it but, to help them, we set up the serviced sites fund and put additional money into it, following our engagement with Fianna Fáil in advance of the budget for this year. That is €310 million, as the Deputy knows....

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Rebuilding Ireland - Action Plan for Housing and Homelessness: Discussion (6 Mar 2019)

Eoghan Murphy: Yes. In 2017, the number of new homes that came available for use was 18,200. In 2018, the figure was 21,400. We anticipate approximately 25,000 new homes becoming available for use this year.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Rebuilding Ireland - Action Plan for Housing and Homelessness: Discussion (6 Mar 2019)

Eoghan Murphy: This is about the increase of the level of activity to meet the 25,00 unit target by 2020 or earlier, taking account of the backlog in supply experienced to date. This is under pillar 3 and building more homes.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Rebuilding Ireland - Action Plan for Housing and Homelessness: Discussion (6 Mar 2019)

Eoghan Murphy: What we were talking about there-----

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Rebuilding Ireland - Action Plan for Housing and Homelessness: Discussion (6 Mar 2019)

Eoghan Murphy: There were 18,000 new builds last year but the Deputy is not counting the unfinished housing estates which were completed and homes coming out of vacancy. The targets under Rebuilding Ireland include different homes coming into use including new builds.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Rebuilding Ireland - Action Plan for Housing and Homelessness: Discussion (6 Mar 2019)

Eoghan Murphy: No. The overall targets under Rebuilding Ireland were always new homes becoming available for use because that was the dataset we were using at the time. I brought in a new dataset from the CSO which broke it down to also include new builds. It is too early in the year to know the figure for new builds this year but I anticipate somewhere between 22,000 and 23,000. We are looking at...