Results 3,041-3,060 of 15,555 for speaker:Eoghan Murphy

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

Eoghan Murphy: I am trying to ascertain what the Deputy means. He asked about a bond issue and I answered the question. What other issue is the Deputy referring to that may be delaying work?

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

Eoghan Murphy: Not that I am aware of.

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

Eoghan Murphy: I am not aware of any. The housing office works with the local authorities to deal with site-specific issues. We have a pipeline indicating all the different stages of the approval process. For example, there are currently 5,000 houses being built on various sites. I gave figures earlier and approximately 1,700 are about to go on-site. We can see through this how we will meet our targets...

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

Eoghan Murphy: I have just been informed there is one site in Wicklow with four units. I am not sure what is the issue.

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

Eoghan Murphy: Not that I am aware of.

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

Eoghan Murphy: If the Deputy has information-----

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

Eoghan Murphy: That would be helpful.

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

Eoghan Murphy: The answer is that there is no trend. We have many sites under construction and individual sites will have particular issues. With regard to short-term letting, I indicated previously that I am responsible for the planning system. We will get at the short-term letting issue through change in the planning laws. However, I also indicated that further work will be necessary, after we have...

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

Eoghan Murphy: The Rebuilding Ireland home loan scheme has a tranche of €200 million over three years. At the end of the first year, €107 million - roughly half the total amount - had been drawn down. If it is to proceed on that basis, we would do in two years what we had hoped to do in three. We would reach the end of the scheme a year early. The reason I have entered into discussions...

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

Eoghan Murphy: I commenced a review of the scheme last autumn. We got independent people to work with the Department. It has proposals on certain matters such as making sure there is consistency in how applications are treated across local authority areas and trying to further improve the timelines between an application being made and approval being given. There are other ideas rather than...

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

Eoghan Murphy: Regarding Brexit, there is no need to discuss all the work the Government has been doing in the last number of years to prepare for it. The Department of Business, Enterprise and Innovation leads on matters such as supply chain issues and certification. That work is being progressed through that Department. We have also been in consultation with the CIF and there have been a number 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. We have a responsibility to support the industry but the Department of Business, Enterprise and Innovation has the lead in ensuring that the different industry stakeholders are Brexit ready. It has been doing a great deal of work in that regard. For our part, we have supported them in doing that. I have had discussions with the Construction Federation of Ireland. It is also...

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 Deputy for acknowledging what is happening and the good work the Department is doing with local authorities. More money has been spent this year on housing than any previous Government spent in a single year. There were more new homes built last year than have been built in any year in the last decade. I have had the privilege in my job to meet families who have exited...

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 see what additional information can be provided for the Deputy. On the Rebuilding Ireland home loan scheme, I do not wish to go over old ground but it is important to note that allocations were given to each local authority. However, where there was more demand or more successful drawdowns in another local authority area, allocations were reprioritised, as I referenced earlier. It...

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

Eoghan Murphy: We try to manage it in that kind of dynamic way, whereby a local authority experiencing higher demand-----

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

Eoghan Murphy: -----is allocated more money from other local authorities in which loans were not being drawn down to the same extent. That was done in 2018. We were able to be dynamic in managing that fund. As I stated in reply to a parliamentary question last week, several local authorities used up their allocation for 2018 in spite of being given additional resources. The allocations for 2019 depend...

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

Eoghan Murphy: The ten relevant local authorities were contacted before I issued that reply to the parliamentary question to tell them that we were about to enter negotiations with the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform-----

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 not the case now because those negotiations have commenced. The meetings did not take place until all local authorities had been told this was about to happen. Those discussions have commenced. The key thing to note is that at the end of year one 50% of the fund had been drawn down but we had expected that 30% would have been drawn down. The second key point to note is that at...

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 the warm welcome she recently gave me, and for wearing the Rebuilding Ireland jacket.

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

Eoghan Murphy: It was great to turn the sod and then come back to see the houses built, with families moving in. It was a genuinely special day for those involved.