Results 3,441-3,460 of 11,114 for speaker:Damien English

Other Questions: Housing Provision (27 Feb 2018)

Damien English: I propose to take Questions Nos. 42 and 45 together. The Department is working closely with all local authorities on increasing and accelerating the delivery of a range of social housing programmes and supports, including through the use of rapid build methodologies. Under the Department's social housing capital programme, 208 rapid delivery homes were completed in schemes across the...

Other Questions: Local Authority Housing Waiting Lists (27 Feb 2018)

Damien English: I propose to take Questions Nos. 41 and 80 together. Implementation of the Government's Rebuilding Ireland action plan is well under way and making significant progress. This was evident in the social housing output indicative figures published last month, which showed that nearly 26,000 households had their social housing needs met in 2017. In 2017 some 85,799 households in the country...

Priority Questions: Social and Affordable Housing Eligibility (27 Feb 2018)

Damien English: There is a range of schemes designed to help people on different income brackets. Naturally in the first year of Rebuilding Ireland the main focus was to get the housing construction back up and to get local authorities back in a position of building houses, which they had not been doing for many years - probably even before the recession - because policy decisions were made to restrict...

Priority Questions: Social and Affordable Housing Eligibility (27 Feb 2018)

Damien English: The Social Housing Assessment Regulations 2011 prescribe maximum net income limits for eligibility for social housing support for each local authority in different bands according to the area, with income being defined and assessed according to a standard household means policy published by my Department. The income bands and the authority area assigned to each band are based on an...

Priority Questions: Social and Affordable Housing Eligibility (27 Feb 2018)

Damien English: The case referred to by the Deputy is in Limerick. I am surprised. I know Limerick is in band 2 where the limit is about €30,000 plus percentage allowances for each child, so that person should qualify for social housing in Limerick with an income of €32,000. The figures we have are for net income, so that generally results in a rate of about €48,000 gross pay, so I...

Priority Questions: Social and Affordable Housing (27 Feb 2018)

Damien English: I remind the Deputy that Rebuilding Ireland is a five-year document. We all want it to work in week one, but it will probably take four or five years to deliver on its promise. I think it is on track to do so and the report launched by the Minister, Deputy Eoghan Murphy, in January showed all of the headings under which it was delivering housing. Overall, it is way ahead of target and...

Priority Questions: Social and Affordable Housing (27 Feb 2018)

Damien English: I had not finished my answer. We meet credit unions and both the Minister and I are conscious of their ability to invest. We always say access to cash is not restricting the provision of housing, but we welcome the involvement of credit unions through investment and providing loans. Six approved housing bodies applied to draw down funding and a sum of €104,000 was drawn down to...

Priority Questions: Social and Affordable Housing (27 Feb 2018)

Damien English: The changes have been made by the Central Bank and kicked in in January, but it will only be on 1 March, at the end of this week, that the mechanism to allow the credit union movement to invest in housing projects will apply. My officials are meeting both credit union bodies today and we are moving as quickly as we can. We have engaged a lot with the credit union movement because we believe...

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Tenant Purchase Scheme (27 Feb 2018)

Damien English: I propose to take Questions Nos. 46 and 63 together. The Tenant (Incremental) Purchase Scheme came into operation on 1 January 2016.  The Scheme is open to eligible tenants, including joint tenants, of local authority houses that are available for sale under the Scheme. To be eligible, tenants must meet certain criteria, including having a minimum reckonable income of €15,000...

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Land Issues (27 Feb 2018)

Damien English: I propose to take Questions Nos. 47, 78 and 95 together. The active management of the publicly-owned housing land bank is part of a range of complementary actions being progressed under the Rebuilding Ireland Action Plan for Housing and Homelessness, designed to accelerate and increase housing output.  To this end, details of some 1,700 hectares of land in local authority and Housing...

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Fire Safety Regulations (27 Feb 2018)

Damien English: Under the Building Control Acts 1990 to 2014, primary responsibility for compliance of works with the requirements of the Building Regulations, including Part B (Fire Safety), rests with the owners, designers and builders of buildings. Enforcement of the Building Regulations is a matter for the 31 local building control authorities, who have extensive powers of inspection and enforcement...

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Building Regulations (27 Feb 2018)

Damien English: The Planning and Development (Amendment) (No. 2) Regulations 2018 amend Article 10 of the Planning and Development Regulations 2001-2017 to provide an exemption for the change of use, and any related works, of certain vacant commercial premises to residential use without the need to obtain planning permission.  The main objectives of this exemption are to facilitate the...

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Ministerial Meetings (27 Feb 2018)

Damien English: I received a request in recent days from this group, through my colleague Minister of State Sean Kyne, TD, to meet with me. The group will be contacted with a response once due consideration has been given to the request.

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Housing Policy (27 Feb 2018)

Damien English: I have read the report entitled Safe as Houses: A Report on Building Standards, Building Controls and Consumer Protection, published by the Joint Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government on 24 January 2018. It should be noted that in response to the many building failures that emerged in the last decade, my Department has been working on a building control reform agenda,...

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Fire Stations Upgrade (27 Feb 2018)

Damien English: The provision of fire services in local authority areas, including the establishment and maintenance of fire brigades, the assessment of fire cover needs and the provision of premises, is a statutory function of the individual fire authorities under the provisions of the Fire Services Acts, 1981 and 2003. My Department supports the fire authorities through setting general policy, providing a...

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Fire Stations Upgrade (27 Feb 2018)

Damien English: The provision of fire services in local authority areas, including the establishment and maintenance of fire brigades, the assessment of fire cover needs and the provision of premises, is a statutory function of the individual fire authorities under the provisions of the Fire Services Acts, 1981 and 2003. My Department supports the fire authorities through setting general policy, providing a...

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Planning Issues (27 Feb 2018)

Damien English: Under the Planning and Development Act 2000, as amended, all development, including a material change of use, unless specifically exempted under the Act or associated Regulations, requires planning permission. Section 4 of the Act and Article 6 and Schedule 2 of the Planning and Development Regulations 2001 (as amended) set out in more detail the various exemptions from the requirement to...

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Building Regulations Compliance (27 Feb 2018)

Damien English: I propose to take Questions Nos. 739 to 741, inclusive, together. Section 3(5) of the , provides that every building to which building regulations apply shall be designed and constructed in accordance with the provisions of such regulations. Under the Building Control Acts 1990 to 2014, primary responsibility for compliance of works with the requirements of the Building Regulations, including...

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Coastal Zone Management (27 Feb 2018)

Damien English: The application in question includes an area of Clare Coastline from the Clare/Galway border around to Rinn Point in Ballyvaghan Bay.

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Seaweed Harvesting Licences (27 Feb 2018)

Damien English: Under the Foreshore Act 1933, I have responsibility for regulating the harvesting of wild seaweed. I have no statutory role in the promotion or development of the seaweed industry. A number of applications to harvest wild seaweed along the west coast are on hand in my Department. During the course of assessing these applications, it became clear that certain rights to harvest seaweed...