Results 3,061-3,080 of 26,778 for speaker:Darragh O'Brien

Ceisteanna Eile (Atógail) - Other Questions (Resumed): Housing Schemes (22 Oct 2024)

Darragh O'Brien: I know.

Ceisteanna Eile (Atógail) - Other Questions (Resumed): Housing Schemes (22 Oct 2024)

Darragh O'Brien: I propose to take Questions Nos. 57, 63, 66, 70 and 73 together. The vacant property refurbishment grant, or the Croí Cónaithe towns grant, is a key support introduced by this Government to bring vacant and derelict properties back into use. It is a significant grant. A grant of up to €50,000 is available for the refurbishment of vacant properties for occupation as a...

Ceisteanna Eile (Atógail) - Other Questions (Resumed): Housing Schemes (22 Oct 2024)

Darragh O'Brien: I might give some figures first, which might be helpful to the Deputies. In Cork city, 318 applications were received, of which 241 were approved. Only nine were rejected. The other applications are being processed and applications are still coming in. A total of 28 grants have been paid out in Cork city. That figure will accelerate substantially over the coming months. We are budgeting...

Ceisteanna Eile (Atógail) - Other Questions (Resumed): Housing Schemes (22 Oct 2024)

Darragh O'Brien: That is County Galway. Galway city is behind and we have engaged with the council. A total of 79 applications were received, of which 58 were approved. I can provide these details to Deputies across local authorities. To answer Deputy Ó Cuív's question, extensions can be granted. I have not had any case come back to me where a local authority said it would not extend it if it...

Ceisteanna Eile (Atógail) - Other Questions (Resumed): Housing Schemes (22 Oct 2024)

Darragh O'Brien: Under Housing for All, we made provision for the purchase of 200 social housing acquisitions and to permit that each year. In 2023, with the Deputy's support, the Government agreed that we would increase the provision and the allocation of funds for 1,500 social housing acquisitions. This has continued into 2024 and my Department will fund local authorities to acquire at least 1,500 social...

Ceisteanna Eile (Atógail) - Other Questions (Resumed): Housing Schemes (22 Oct 2024)

Darragh O'Brien: The targets that were set were baseline targets. Like last year, I would like our local authorities to exceed those targets. It is difficult to get an average processing time because we are dependent on conveyancing, in particular, how that works out, and how smoothly it works. I find with most that once the property has gone sale agreed, it secures the tenancy in the main. We have come...

Ceisteanna Eile (Atógail) - Other Questions (Resumed): Housing Schemes (22 Oct 2024)

Darragh O'Brien: On the ability of a local authority to breach the rent pressure zone rules, the ability to renegotiate a rent that breaches the rules is not there. As the Deputy knows, we are looking at that and at what will replace RPZs, which have been extended to the end of 2025. It will be a big job for the next government to look at what protections will be brought in in the future. It is...

Ceisteanna Eile (Atógail) - Other Questions (Resumed): Housing Provision (22 Oct 2024)

Darragh O'Brien: I propose to take Questions Nos. 56 and 62 together. In Cavan, 309 social homes were delivered through build, acquisition and lease since the formation of the Government to the end of quarter two of 2024, of which 216 were new-build homes. During the same period, 41 affordable homes were delivered. In Monaghan, 485 social homes were delivered through build, acquisition and lease since the...

Ceisteanna Eile (Atógail) - Other Questions (Resumed): Housing Provision (22 Oct 2024)

Darragh O'Brien: A total of 21 local authorities across the country have come forward with their own affordable housing schemes. We have other affordability measures. The Deputy mentioned the difficulties renters face in saving. That is why the help to buy grant is so critically important and applies to self-build homes as well. I know Sinn Féin's housing spokesperson is not here but that is a scheme...

Ceisteanna Eile (Atógail) - Other Questions (Resumed): Housing Provision (22 Oct 2024)

Darragh O'Brien: I will get the Deputy the exact tenant in situ purchases. The figure for cost-rental tenant in situ in her constituency is eight so I can confidently tell that the figure for the tenant in situ will be substantially higher than that. Last year, we purchased over 1,800 social homes. We will do more than that this year. In the Deputy's constituency, the figure is substantially higher than...

Ceisteanna Eile (Atógail) - Other Questions (Resumed): Housing Provision (22 Oct 2024)

Darragh O'Brien: The research published in July by the ESRI on population growth and structural housing demand to 2040 provides a credible evidence base for the development of revised housing targets by my Department. Officials in my Department have considered the implications of the ESRI research and estimated the level of unmet demand for the revised housing targets. They have also considered other policy...

Ceisteanna Eile (Atógail) - Other Questions (Resumed): Housing Provision (22 Oct 2024)

Darragh O'Brien: As the Deputy knows, I have been to Clare a number of times. The housing team in Clare are doing a very good job. Some homes are delivered directly by the local authority and some through approved housing bodies, and a combination of repair and lease is also bringing older buildings back into use. The years 2020 and 2021 were constrained due to the construction shutdowns during Covid,...

Ceisteanna Eile (Atógail) - Other Questions (Resumed): Housing Provision (22 Oct 2024)

Darragh O'Brien: The Deputy mentioned the overall national figures. If we look at 2023, just short of 12,000 social homes were delivered. Of those, 8,110 were new-build social homes. That was the highest number in 50 years. Mainly through the tenantin situprogramme, we purchased 1,830 new homes, ended HAP tenancies and insecure tenancies and converted them to social housing tenancies. We delivered...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Housing Schemes (22 Oct 2024)

Darragh O'Brien: The facts are, based on the returns received from local authorities for transactions completed this year, that the average upfront affordability purchase price paid by borrowers is €267,000 for a range of two-, three- and four-bedroom homes. Look at the difference between the scheme that is working on the ground and Sinn Féin's scheme, where purchasers do not even own the land...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Housing Schemes (22 Oct 2024)

Darragh O'Brien: -----he would have to deliver homes. He knows the glossy brochure that Sinn Féin published will not do that, given he could not state earlier, even in respect of the home-you'll-never-own plan, that anyone will even lend to it. Sinn Féin will not even get development finance to lend to it.

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Housing Schemes (22 Oct 2024)

Darragh O'Brien: I listened very intently to the Deputy and he did not answer the question.

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Housing Schemes (22 Oct 2024)

Darragh O'Brien: We have already seen that the public are responding to cost rental. The Deputy knows that and it might disappoint him, but the Government's Housing for All plan, as he knows, targets the delivery of 18,000 cost-rental homes by approved housing bodies, AHBs, the Land Development Agency, which the Deputy would abolish, and local authorities, although he has not yet said how Sinn Féin will...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Housing Schemes (22 Oct 2024)

Darragh O'Brien: That is what I said.

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Housing Schemes (22 Oct 2024)

Darragh O'Brien: I have answered the question honestly on the record of the Dáil. I do not have a track record of misleading the Dáil. I have always been open and honest with people. The Deputy can laugh at that but his party's behaviour over recent weeks in that regard has been nothing short of reprehensible, so I do not think it is something to laugh about. I am not going to conflate the two...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Housing Schemes (22 Oct 2024)

Darragh O'Brien: I have told the Deputy, on the record of the House, that they will be around €1,250, according to the information I have. The final rent figures have not yet been decided on. What I can tell the Deputy-----