Results 21-40 of 415 for speaker:Rory Hearne

An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business (15 Jul 2025)

Rory Hearne: The Government's last action before the Dáil rises for the summer is to cook the books on affordable housing delivery and ram through new legislation to reduce apartment standards that will mean generations of Irish people will be forced to pay €3,000 a month rent to investor funds to live in dark shoeboxes. Once again, the Government is sacrificing renters to investor funds and...

Select Committee on Housing, Local Government and Heritage: Estimates for Public Services 2025
Vote 16 - Tailte Éireann (Revised)
Vote 23 - An Coimisiún Toghcháin (Revised)
Vote 34 - Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage (Revised) (15 Jul 2025)

Rory Hearne: I thank the Minister and his officials for providing the information. Maybe he can explain some of it to me. Given he has said we have a housing emergency and we also have a budget surplus of billions of euro, has he requested significant additional capital in the budgetary process and does he expect a significant increase in capital allocation in the budget for social and affordable...

Select Committee on Housing, Local Government and Heritage: Estimates for Public Services 2025
Vote 16 - Tailte Éireann (Revised)
Vote 23 - An Coimisiún Toghcháin (Revised)
Vote 34 - Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage (Revised) (15 Jul 2025)

Rory Hearne: I thank the Minister. Can he understand how members of the public would be very confused and frustrated when they look at a budget surplus of billions of euro, a Government and everybody saying there is a housing emergency and that money not being allocated into delivering the additional social and affordable homes it could be if that decision was made?

Select Committee on Housing, Local Government and Heritage: Estimates for Public Services 2025
Vote 16 - Tailte Éireann (Revised)
Vote 23 - An Coimisiún Toghcháin (Revised)
Vote 34 - Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage (Revised) (15 Jul 2025)

Rory Hearne: Okay. I find it deeply frustrating and a lot of members of the public do as well. It is stated that €3.9 billion is being allocated to housing in terms of capital and then the Minister said €6.8 billion. I have a couple of questions on that. Of the €3.9 billion, how much capital is delivering new, additional units and is not in other schemes like regeneration and...

Select Committee on Housing, Local Government and Heritage: Estimates for Public Services 2025
Vote 16 - Tailte Éireann (Revised)
Vote 23 - An Coimisiún Toghcháin (Revised)
Vote 34 - Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage (Revised) (15 Jul 2025)

Rory Hearne: The Minister stated that €6.8 billion is being spent on housing each year. I am trying to figure out how much of that is being spent on delivering new housing each year. I refer here to LDA and Housing Finance Agency funding. I not referring to money that was spent on housing that was built a couple of years ago and that is being used to pay off loans, etc.

Select Committee on Housing, Local Government and Heritage: Estimates for Public Services 2025
Vote 16 - Tailte Éireann (Revised)
Vote 23 - An Coimisiún Toghcháin (Revised)
Vote 34 - Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage (Revised) (15 Jul 2025)

Rory Hearne: If the Minister could do that and get back to me, I would appreciate it. Following on from Deputy Ó Broin's question, my analysis is that there has been a reduction of 12% in the funding for local authority housing between 2024 and 2025. Is this right? In the 2024 Estimate, the figure was €1.6 billion. The figure for 2025 is €1.4 billion.

Select Committee on Housing, Local Government and Heritage: Estimates for Public Services 2025
Vote 16 - Tailte Éireann (Revised)
Vote 23 - An Coimisiún Toghcháin (Revised)
Vote 34 - Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage (Revised) (15 Jul 2025)

Rory Hearne: What was the reason for that?

Select Committee on Housing, Local Government and Heritage: Estimates for Public Services 2025
Vote 16 - Tailte Éireann (Revised)
Vote 23 - An Coimisiún Toghcháin (Revised)
Vote 34 - Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage (Revised) (15 Jul 2025)

Rory Hearne: In the context of delivering social housing, inflation is an ongoing consideration. Everybody is talking about it. The Minister is trying to bring about an increase in the delivery of such housing. However, he is saying that basically we have more or less the same budget this year as last to facilitate delivery.

Select Committee on Housing, Local Government and Heritage: Estimates for Public Services 2025
Vote 16 - Tailte Éireann (Revised)
Vote 23 - An Coimisiún Toghcháin (Revised)
Vote 34 - Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage (Revised) (15 Jul 2025)

Rory Hearne: Is the Minister disappointed that his decision has affected the delivery of social housing projects?

Select Committee on Housing, Local Government and Heritage: Estimates for Public Services 2025
Vote 16 - Tailte Éireann (Revised)
Vote 23 - An Coimisiún Toghcháin (Revised)
Vote 34 - Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage (Revised) (15 Jul 2025)

Rory Hearne: My final question relates to affordable housing. The figure provided in respect of affordable housing units is 6,400. Could the Minister break that down in terms of vacant, cost-rental and affordable purchase houses? I would question the officials in the context of vacant housing units being included in the numbers for affordable housing. Can the Minister explain how such units are being...

Select Committee on Housing, Local Government and Heritage: Estimates for Public Services 2025
Vote 16 - Tailte Éireann (Revised)
Vote 23 - An Coimisiún Toghcháin (Revised)
Vote 34 - Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage (Revised) (15 Jul 2025)

Rory Hearne: It was 4,979 in 2024 and it is 4,100 for 2025. Is that right?

Select Committee on Housing, Local Government and Heritage: Estimates for Public Services 2025
Vote 16 - Tailte Éireann (Revised)
Vote 23 - An Coimisiún Toghcháin (Revised)
Vote 34 - Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage (Revised) (15 Jul 2025)

Rory Hearne: Sorry, it is output versus target. There is no affordability measure regarding vacant properties. If someone receives the vacant property grant, there is no affordability assessment. In other words, there is no assessment of whether he or she needs or does not need affordable housing. In addition, there is nothing which guarantees that the housing being delivered through that mechanism is...

Select Committee on Housing, Local Government and Heritage: Estimates for Public Services 2025
Vote 16 - Tailte Éireann (Revised)
Vote 23 - An Coimisiún Toghcháin (Revised)
Vote 34 - Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage (Revised) (15 Jul 2025)

Rory Hearne: I would ask the Department to look at that. I think it should be recategorised.

Select Committee on Housing, Local Government and Heritage: Estimates for Public Services 2025
Vote 16 - Tailte Éireann (Revised)
Vote 23 - An Coimisiún Toghcháin (Revised)
Vote 34 - Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage (Revised) (15 Jul 2025)

Rory Hearne: I will see how many of my questions I can get through in five minutes. My first question is on affordable purchase housing and home ownership rates among young people between the ages of 25 to 29. Less than one quarter of people in that age group own their own home and there is no real sign of that changing. My question is on the lack of ambition in increasing home ownership and what is...

Select Committee on Housing, Local Government and Heritage: Estimates for Public Services 2025
Vote 16 - Tailte Éireann (Revised)
Vote 23 - An Coimisiún Toghcháin (Revised)
Vote 34 - Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage (Revised) (15 Jul 2025)

Rory Hearne: To follow on from Deputy Ó Broin, when can the Minister give us the LDA analysis of the cost savings on the regulations?

Select Committee on Housing, Local Government and Heritage: Estimates for Public Services 2025
Vote 16 - Tailte Éireann (Revised)
Vote 23 - An Coimisiún Toghcháin (Revised)
Vote 34 - Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage (Revised) (15 Jul 2025)

Rory Hearne: It is disappointing. Maybe in future decisions it would be helpful to have that evidence directly from the source. We completely support the LDA in what it is doing around social and affordable housing delivery but there are questions about what is in its own interest in increasing units and so on. There is no increase in funding for communal facilities in social housing in the Estimates....

Select Committee on Housing, Local Government and Heritage: Estimates for Public Services 2025
Vote 16 - Tailte Éireann (Revised)
Vote 23 - An Coimisiún Toghcháin (Revised)
Vote 34 - Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage (Revised) (15 Jul 2025)

Rory Hearne: Is there any plan to fund communal facilities within cost-rental and affordable rental housing developments?

Select Committee on Housing, Local Government and Heritage: Estimates for Public Services 2025
Vote 16 - Tailte Éireann (Revised)
Vote 23 - An Coimisiún Toghcháin (Revised)
Vote 34 - Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage (Revised) (15 Jul 2025)

Rory Hearne: This is something that will have to be looked at. As we increase the delivery of cost-rental housing, we must ensure that sufficient community leisure facilities are provided within those schemes. Turning to Uisce Éireann's capital allocation, the 2024 Estimate was €1.03 billion, while that for 2025 is just under €1 billion. I estimate there is roughly a 4% fall. I am...

Select Committee on Housing, Local Government and Heritage: Estimates for Public Services 2025
Vote 16 - Tailte Éireann (Revised)
Vote 23 - An Coimisiún Toghcháin (Revised)
Vote 34 - Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage (Revised) (15 Jul 2025)

Rory Hearne: The concept of affordable housing for elderly people was mentioned. Given we know many elderly people would not qualify for it, especially in terms of renting, has this aspect been explored and the possibility of delivering it examined? On student accommodation, and while I understand it is under the remit of a different Department, does the Minister have any comment on providing...