Results 6,281-6,300 of 15,555 for speaker:Eoghan Murphy

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Local Infrastructure Housing Activation Fund (31 Jan 2018)

Eoghan Murphy: No, I am not talking about the bank of mum and dad but about their own savings and the help to buy scheme which the Government has introduced. The affordability measures are working. Look at what LIHAF is trying to achieve and what it will achieve with State funding. We will get a much bigger bang for our buck than if we had invested the money directly. Furthermore, thousands of homes are...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Local Infrastructure Housing Activation Fund (31 Jan 2018)

Eoghan Murphy: The primary aim of LIHAF is to stimulate and accelerate the early release of land for housing in urban areas with large demand, by opening up these lands with key enabling public infrastructure that would otherwise not be provided in the short term. It was initially proposed that a capped price point would be set on a percentage of the housing. However, in consultation with local...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Housing Provision (31 Jan 2018)

Eoghan Murphy: The Deputy asked if housing bodies will have a role. They will have a role in this but it will depend on how the relevant local authority wants to build out the land and the purpose it wants to put it to under the affordable housing scheme. Obviously, Ó Cualann is a housing body and Dublin City Council has worked with it already. As such, we know this can work and we know how it could...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Private Rented Accommodation Standards (31 Jan 2018)

Eoghan Murphy: I thank the Deputy for the question. "Overcrowding" is dealt with in Part IV of the Housing Act 1966, as amended. Minimum standards in rental accommodation apply to all properties let or available to let. Where someone believes that a property is being made available to let in breach of the standards, for example through overcrowding, the matter should be referred to the relevant housing...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Private Rented Accommodation Standards (31 Jan 2018)

Eoghan Murphy: I accept the Deputy's bona fides absolutely on this and when it comes to us all wanting to work together to ensure we get better standards for tenants. What we saw in the RTÉ exposé were human rights abuses perpetrated in our country against people who were not able to defend themselves. One of the things we have looked at with the Residential Tenancies Board is to see how we can...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Private Rented Accommodation Standards (31 Jan 2018)

Eoghan Murphy: We must increase inspections. That is what the funding commitment between now and 2021 is about. We want to get to a point where a property is inspected once every four years approximately. When it comes to a housing assistance payment tenancy, we have a much narrower timeline than that. In that case, the property must have been inspected in the previous 12 months or is to be inspected in...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Housing Provision (31 Jan 2018)

Eoghan Murphy: The Government is committed to helping people to achieve the aspiration of home ownership. We recognise that buying a first home is always a challenging prospect but has become increasingly difficult in Dublin and other areas. Building on other initiatives already under way to improve affordability, I announced a number of new affordable housing measures last week. Together with the...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Housing Provision (31 Jan 2018)

Eoghan Murphy: The Deputy asked about the numbers. When I announced the scheme I said that we had identified land and finance for at least 3,000 homes under the affordable purchase scheme, but our ambition is for 10,000 homes. Asking local authorities to identify more land that could be made available for those homes was part of our engagement under the housing summit. The way the scheme is being set up,...

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Local Infrastructure Housing Activation Fund (31 Jan 2018)

Eoghan Murphy: I propose to take Questions Nos. 69, 100 and 107 together. Up to 34 infrastructure projects, at a total cost of €226 million, received preliminary approval for funding in March 2017 under the Local Infrastructure Housing Activation Fund (LIHAF). Local authorities were allowed to proceed to design phase on all of these projects, pending final approval and sign-off of a grant...

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Housing Provision (31 Jan 2018)

Eoghan Murphy: Local authorities already have powers to make low-cost sites available to individuals, who are qualified for social housing support, and collectively, to voluntary or co-operative not-for-profit housing associations. Separately, I am providing funding of €25 million, over 2018 and 2019, for a targeted programme, where the local authority...

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Deposit Protection Scheme Establishment (31 Jan 2018)

Eoghan Murphy: The Residential Tenancies (Amendment) Act 2015 provides for, among other things, the establishment of a tenancy deposit protection scheme to be operated by the Residential Tenancies Board (RTB). The Government is fully committed to the principle of ensuring effective protection of deposits.  I have asked my Department, in consultation with the RTB, to undertake a detailed...

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Housing Assistance Payment Data (31 Jan 2018)

Eoghan Murphy: There are currently more than 32,000 households having their housing needs met via the Housing Assistance Payment (HAP). Data regarding the number of households set up on HAP is published on my Department's website and is available up to the end of quarter 3  2017. Data for quarter 4 is currently being finalised and will be published shortly. The total number of new...

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Local Authority Staff Recruitment (31 Jan 2018)

Eoghan Murphy: Under section 159 of the Local Government Act 2001, it is the Chief Executive of the Council who is responsible for the staffing and organisational arrangements necessary for carrying out the functions of the local authority. Outside of agreed workforce planning numbers, a local authority must apply to my Department for sanction approval for staff. My Department works closely...

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Local Authority Housing Eligibility (31 Jan 2018)

Eoghan Murphy: 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...

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Local Authority Housing Data (31 Jan 2018)

Eoghan Murphy: Within the overall €6 billion investment framework for Rebuilding Ireland, a funding provision of €1.9 billion is provided for the delivery of housing programmes in 2018.  This represents a 36% increase over 2017 expenditure and will ensure that 25,500 new households have their housing need met this year.  In 2018, some 5,000 new social housing homes will be...

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Local Authority Housing Provision (31 Jan 2018)

Eoghan Murphy: The Voids Programme, introduced in 2014 by my Department, provides additional support to local authorities in preparing vacant units for re-letting. The purpose of the Voids Programme is to ensure that vacant units are actively targeted, with a view to minimising the turnaround and re-let time of these units and return them to use in an energy efficient condition. Between 2014 and 2017,...

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Housing Data (31 Jan 2018)

Eoghan Murphy: In June 2014, the Government established a Housing Supply Coordination Task Force for Dublin under Construction 2020 - A Strategy for a Renewed Construction Sector.  The remit of the Task Force includes the monitoring of relevant housing data on the supply of viable and market-ready approved developments. The data collated by this Task Force on the aggregated planning...

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Approved Housing Bodies (31 Jan 2018)

Eoghan Murphy: Approved Housing Bodies (AHBs) have a critical role in the delivery of new social housing as identified in Rebuilding Ireland, and as evidenced by the range of funding support mechanisms available from my Department and local authorities to support this ambition. One of these supports is the Capital Advance Leasing Facility (CALF), which assists AHBs in accessing private or Housing...

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Emergency Accommodation Provision (31 Jan 2018)

Eoghan Murphy: My Department’s role in relation to homelessness involves the provision of a national framework of policy, legislation and funding to underpin the role of housing authorities in addressing homelessness at local level.  Statutory responsibility in relation to the provision of accommodation and related services for homeless persons rests with individual housing authorities. This...

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Housing Assistance Payment Administration (31 Jan 2018)

Eoghan Murphy: The Housing Assistance Payment (HAP) is a flexible and immediate housing support that is now available to all eligible households throughout the State. There are currently more than 32,000 households having their housing needs met via HAP. Following the commencement of the provisions in the Housing (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 2014, HAP is considered to be a social housing support...