Results 341-360 of 4,718 for speaker:Malcolm Noonan

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Housing Schemes (30 May 2024)

Malcolm Noonan: I am pleased to note that funding approvals are now in place for the delivery of over 4,000 affordable purchase and cost rental homes by 21 local authorities with the support of the Affordable Housing Fund to secure affordable upfront purchase prices and cost rents. This is a significant level of activity. Despite well-documented affordability and viability challenges, the arrangements...

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Housing Schemes (30 May 2024)

Malcolm Noonan: I propose to take Questions Nos. 76 and 83 together. Housing for All sets out a range of actions to increase the supply of housing out to 2030, including providing 54,000 affordable homes for purchase and rent. These homes will be delivered by Local Authorities, AHBs, the LDA, through the First Home Scheme, and by bringing vacant homes back into use. Significant public funding is being...

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Heritage Projects (30 May 2024)

Malcolm Noonan: The National Monuments Service of my Department administers the Community Monuments Fund (CMF). The core aims of the CMF are to:enable conservation works to be carried out on monuments which are deemed to be significant and in need of urgent support;build resilience in our monuments to enable them to withstand the effects of climate change;encourage access to monuments and improve their...

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Heritage Sites (30 May 2024)

Malcolm Noonan: In line with UNESCO advice that World Heritage Tentative Lists be reviewed and updated at least once every ten years, in January 2019, my Department launched a call for applications to a new Tentative List for Ireland. The Tentative List is an inventory of potential sites that Ireland intends to nominate for inclusion on the World Heritage List. Each site on the Tentative List must...

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: National Parks (30 May 2024)

Malcolm Noonan: The publication of legislation to provide a legal basis for National Parks is a priority for the National Parks and Wildlife Service (NPWS) within my Department. The NPWS is currently assessing the requirements of such legislation and considering how best to advance legislation in such a way as to maximise possible benefits to the National Park System. It should be noted, just as the...

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Heritage Sites (30 May 2024)

Malcolm Noonan: The Passage Tomb Landscape of County Sligo was added to Ireland's World Heritage Tentative List in 2022. My Department has met a number of times with Sligo County Council to discuss how the nomination towards World Heritage status should proceed and we are currently finalising a Memorandum of Understanding with the Local Authority that will set out the overarching nomination structure, key...

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: National Monuments (30 May 2024)

Malcolm Noonan: Under the provisions of the National Monuments Acts, my Department has established and maintains a Record of Monuments and Places (RMP) which affords legal protection to all recorded archaeological sites and monuments in the State, including the passage tomb on privately owned land such as Cairns Hill. The National Monuments Acts permit me, as Minister, to acquire a monument which I, as...

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Heritage Schemes (30 May 2024)

Malcolm Noonan: My Department supports the built heritage sector principally through the work of the National Built Heritage Service (NBHS), which oversees funding schemes, surveys historic buildings, contributes to policy development, provides technical advice to owners and professionals, and promotes community engagement with our built heritage. In relation to funding support in particular: The...

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Heritage Schemes (30 May 2024)

Malcolm Noonan: The Planning and Development Act 2000 (as amended) sets out the framework for the protection of historic buildings, giving local authorities power to add buildings to their record of protected structures, which then places obligations on owners and on the planning authority itself to prevent endangerment of the building. My Department supports local authorities and owners through the...

Seanad: Housing Commission Report: Motion (29 May 2024)

Malcolm Noonan: I thank all the Senators for their contributions. I will address some of the points raised by Senators before my closing remarks. An overarching thing to say, which goes back to the point raised by Senators Warfield, Gavan and Boylan, about the notion that the Minister, Deputy O’Brien, dismissed the commission’s work, is that is certainly not the case. It is simply not the...

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Wildlife Regulations (29 May 2024)

Malcolm Noonan: I recently appointed Mr Teddy Cashman as Chair of the Sustainable Hunting of Wild Birds Stakeholder Forum. A series of bilateral meetings with relevant stakeholders has commenced and the first full Forum meeting of all relevant stakeholders will take place by the end of Q3 2024.

Local Authority Housing Maintenance and Repair: Motion (Resumed) [Private Members] (28 May 2024)

Malcolm Noonan: My mother, as a proud Kildare woman, would probably concur with the comments of Deputy Pringle too. I thank all of the Deputies for their contributions. I will respond to some of their comments before making my closing remarks. Quite a number of Deputies have raised the issue of apprentices and direct maintenance within local authorities. I raised this with officials during the...

An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business (28 May 2024)

Malcolm Noonan: I am not sure exactly what issue the Deputy is referring to. Certainly, he is correct regarding the role of the NPWS in the enforcement of the Wildlife Act, which is currently under review in my Department in respect of hedge cutting and other issues. If the Deputy provides the information to me, we can certainly investigate the matter for him.

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: National Parks and Wildlife Service (28 May 2024)

Malcolm Noonan: Reflect and Renew - A review of the National Parks and Wildlife Service (NPWS), recommended that external communications by the NPWS should be professionalised and should prioritise a more open and collaborative engagement with civil society groups and others. NPWS is constantly working to improve all aspects of its communication including with external stakeholders. There are a number of...

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Animal Culls (28 May 2024)

Malcolm Noonan: All deer hunting licences issued under Section 29 of the Wildlife Act, as amended, are issued to individuals and there is no plan to alter this process.

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Sport and Recreational Development (28 May 2024)

Malcolm Noonan: The licence referred to was issued to the applicant on 17 May last.

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: National Parks and Wildlife Service (28 May 2024)

Malcolm Noonan: The National Parks and Wildlife Service (NPWS) of my Department prioritises the ongoing management and eradication of invasive species as part of its conservation role, dedicating a significant level of its resources to these management activities each year. Monitoring of invasive species at Glen of the Downs Nature Reserve in County Wicklow continues throughout the year. The most recent...

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Invasive Species Policy (28 May 2024)

Malcolm Noonan: Managing invasive species is one of the important areas of work undertaken by the National Parks and Wildlife Service (NPWS), with a significant amount of resources devoted to this task every year. Invasive species cause grave damage to the ecosystem and to conservation objectives, with species colonising the environment and having significant impacts on biodiversity. The NPWS tackles...

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Departmental Policies (28 May 2024)

Malcolm Noonan: Ireland's 4th National Biodiversity Action Plan (NBAP) 2023-2030 was published in January 2024. Taking an ‘all-of-government, all-of-society’ approach, the NBAP aims to meet urgent conservation and restoration objectives across Ireland’s terrestrial, marine and freshwater ecosystems and secure nature’s contributions to people, while enhancing the evidence base for...

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Turbary Rights (28 May 2024)

Malcolm Noonan: Schedule 4 of Statutory Instrument 386/22, which provides for the designation of the site at Lough Nillan Bog (Carrickatlieve) as a Special Area of Conservation, states that all activities relating to turf cutting and/or peat extraction – with the exception of continued domestic turf cutting from existing turf banks – on Lough Nillan Bog (Carrickatlieve) SAC (000165) require the...