Results 341-360 of 9,065 for speaker:James Browne

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Housing Provision (17 Sep 2025)

James Browne: Affordability and the chance to own a home is at the heart of the Government’s housing policy. As detailed under Housing for All, the Government is fully committed to working with all stakeholders to deliver affordable housing at scale and to continue accelerating housing supply across all tenures. The Government’s ambition is to build on progress to date under Housing for All,...

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Public Procurement Contracts (17 Sep 2025)

James Browne: The Procurement Related Payments over €20,000 report for the period Q1 2025, is available on my Department's website at www.gov.ie/en/department-of-housing-local-government-and-her itage/collections/procurement-related-payments-over-20000-eu ro/. The report for Q2 is currently being prepared and it is intended to make the report available at the same address by the end of this month....

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Public Procurement Contracts (17 Sep 2025)

James Browne: My Department has published the procurement related payments report for Q1 2025 on its Open Data platform at opendata.housing.gov.ie and intends to publish the reports for the period 2014 to 2024 by the end of October 2025. My Department will continue to publish future reports on both gov.ie and the open data platform. My Department currently publishes and supports a number of open...

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Public Procurement Contracts (17 Sep 2025)

James Browne: Details of the total annual expenditure on public procurement by my Department, covering goods, services, and works, in each of the past five years are set out in the attached table. The financial management system (FMS) operated by my Department requires expenditure to be categorised between procurement and non-procurement, allowing the FMS to be used as a basis for identifying...

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Community Development Projects (17 Sep 2025)

James Browne: I propose to take Questions Nos. 638 and 640 together. The Stage 2 application for Kings Island Community Centre is currently being reviewed by my Department. The technical review should be completed shortly and a response will issue Limerick City and County Council on the application as soon as possible thereafter.

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Community Development Projects (17 Sep 2025)

James Browne: My Department is currently reviewing the Stage 1 application for St. Mary's Park, King's Island. Given the nature of the application, the technical review has taken longer than would be expected. That said, the review will be completed shortly and my Department will follow up directly with Limerick City and County Council as soon as possible thereafter.

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Election Management System (17 Sep 2025)

James Browne: Arrangements for the holding of elections and referendums, including the setting of the polling day, are set out in legislation. Electoral law allows for the taking of the poll at elections and referendums on any day of the week and this flexibility allows all relevant factors to be taken into account at any given time in setting the polling day. Electoral law and policy is kept under ongoing...

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Housing Policy (17 Sep 2025)

James Browne: The Local Authority Home Loan is a Government-backed mortgage for those who cannot get sufficient funding from commercial banks to purchase or build a home. It has been available nationwide from local authorities since 4 January 2022 for first-time buyers and fresh start applicants. The loan can be used both for new and second-hand properties, or to self-build. To be eligible for a Local...

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Rental Sector (17 Sep 2025)

James Browne: The Residential Tenancies (Amendment) Act 2015 provided for the development of a deposit protection scheme to be operated by the Residential Tenancies Board (RTB). However, significant changes have taken place in the rental market since this legislation was passed. It should be noted that, unlike many other jurisdictions examined, Ireland already has a well-established quasi-judicial dispute...

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Housing Policy (17 Sep 2025)

James Browne: I propose to take Questions Nos. 644 and 645 together. Responsibility for the delivery of the housing targets set under Housing for All rests with individual local authorities, who identify the social and affordable housing need in their administrative area, and are best placed to make decisions on potential sites for development. It is therefore a matter for individual local authorities,...

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: House Sales (17 Sep 2025)

James Browne: My Department assesses, approves and records local authority social housing delivery on a project basis. In order to provide an appropriate benchmark to use as a tool to inform the development and costing of scheme designs at capital appraisal stage, my Department periodically issues Basic Unit Costs (BUCs), for each local authority area. To monitor tender cost trends and to inform BUC...

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Housing Provision (17 Sep 2025)

James Browne: The Programme for Government commits to a new national housing plan to underpin delivery of more than 300,000 houses, including delivery of an average of 12,000 and 15,000 social and starter homes per annum respectively over the period. The revised National Planning Framework (NPF) sets out the need to plan for approximately 50,000 additional households per annum to 2040, and this...

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Housing Provision (17 Sep 2025)

James Browne: Census 2022 indicated that the total stock of habitable permanent housing was 2,112,121, including 153,192 properties rented from a local authority and 29,880 properties rented from a voluntary housing body. The National Oversight and Audit Commission (NOAC) publishes statistics in relation to local authority social housing stock as part of its annual Performance Indicator Report. The...

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: House Prices (17 Sep 2025)

James Browne: My Department, as part of our internal Housing Economics Research Programme and as part of our joint research programme with the Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI), have published a number of research papers on the topics of housing costs and affordability. Housing Economics Research Papers published by my Department and in our joint research programme with the ESRI are...

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Architects Register (17 Sep 2025)

James Browne: Part 3 of the Building Control Act 2007 introduced a system of statutory registration for architects and restricted use of the title of "architect" to persons who are registered architects. Neither my Department nor I has any direct role in the operation of this register, nor do my Department or I receive reports in relation to complaints. Complaints relating to the use of the title are a...

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Legislative Measures (17 Sep 2025)

James Browne: Part 3 of the Building Control Act 2007 introduced a system of statutory registration for architects and restricted use of the title of "architect" to persons who are registered architects. Neither my Department nor I has any direct role in the operation of this register, nor do my Department nor I have any direct role in the enforcement mechanisms. This is a matter for the professional...

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Housing Schemes (17 Sep 2025)

James Browne: I recently secured an additional €50 million as part of the National Development Plan process to expand the social housing second-hand acquisitions programme this year, bringing the total budget available to €375 million. I have decided to ringfence and target this additional funding at acquisitions supporting households, particularly larger families with children, to exit...

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Housing Schemes (17 Sep 2025)

James Browne: My Department assesses, approves and records local authority social housing delivery on a project basis, rather than on the basis of individual unit types. SHIP-funded construction projects by local authorities must, like all publicly-funded construction programmes, comply with the Infrastructure Guidelines (Public Spending Code) and Capital Works Management Framework. My Department...

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Housing Schemes (17 Sep 2025)

James Browne: The Government is acutely aware of the housing challenges faced by many sectors of society. Housing for All, Ireland's housing plan to 2030, contains a suite of actions that continue to increase the provision of housing through accelerating supply and increasing the affordability of homes for our citizens. Under the Programme for Government published in January 2025, the Government...

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Housing Schemes (17 Sep 2025)

James Browne: Local authorities are designated as the lead agencies for coordinating a response to flooding and severe weather emergencies. My Department undertakes the Lead Government Department role, as set out in the Strategic Emergency Management (SEM) Framework (2017), in relation to the coordination of national level responses to severe weather and flooding emergencies, where warranted. The...