Results 6,341-6,360 of 15,555 for speaker:Eoghan Murphy

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Residential Tenancies Board (30 Jan 2018)

Eoghan Murphy: The Residential Tenancies Acts 2004-2016 prescribe the rights and obligations of tenants and landlords in both the private rented sector and the Approved Housing Body (AHB) sector. The Residential Tenancies Board (RTB) was established as an independent statutory body under the Acts to operate a national tenancy registration system and to resolve disputes between landlords and...

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Planning Guidelines (30 Jan 2018)

Eoghan Murphy: Following engagement between the European Commission and my Department regarding the 2013 European Court of Justice ruling in the Flemish Decree case, a Working Group, comprising senior officials from my Department and planning authorities, was established in May 2017 to review and, where necessary, recommend changes to the 2005 Planning Guidelines on Sustainable Rural Housing,...

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Housing Assistance Payment Data (30 Jan 2018)

Eoghan Murphy: The implementation of the Housing Assistance Payment (HAP) scheme is a key Government priority and the accelerated roll-out of the scheme on a national basis was an important early action for completion under the Rebuilding Ireland Action Plan for Housing and Homelessness. HAP was rolled out in 4 waves between September 2014 and March 2017. The nationwide roll-out of the scheme...

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Mortgage Lending (30 Jan 2018)

Eoghan Murphy: Following a review of the two existing local authority home loan schemes, I am introducing, from 1 February 2018, a new loan offering, known as the Rebuilding Ireland Home Loan.  The new loan, which replaces the existing House Purchase Loan and the Home Choice Loan, will enable credit worthy first time buyers to access sustainable mortgage lending to purchase new or...

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: River Basin Management Plans (30 Jan 2018)

Eoghan Murphy: Three processes of public consultation have been held in relation to the second-cycle River Basin Management Plan. These processes are an important part of the river basin management planning process, highlighting matters of public concern and shaping the policies and measures formulated by my Department and related public bodies. A public consultation on Significant Water Management...

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Residential Tenancies Board (30 Jan 2018)

Eoghan Murphy: The Residential Tenancies Acts 2004-2016 prescribe the rights and obligations of landlords and tenants. The Acts provide that landlords in the sector must apply to register a tenancy of a dwelling with the Residential Tenancies Board (RTB) within one month of the commencement of the tenancy. The statutory obligation to register a tenancy applies irrespective of the existence of...

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Social and Affordable Housing Provision (30 Jan 2018)

Eoghan Murphy: I propose to take Questions Nos. 640 and 641 together. As part of the Rebuilding Ireland Action Plan for Housing and Homelessness, and the Social Housing Strategy 2020, a Social Housing Investment Proposals Clearing House Group (Clearing House Group) has been in place to engage with a number of developers, potential investors, financiers, and others who had expressed an...

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Irish Water (30 Jan 2018)

Eoghan Murphy: Since 1 January 2014, Irish Water has statutory responsibility for all aspects of water services planning, delivery and operation at national, regional and local levels. Discharge licences are an operational matter for the utility and I have no function in such matters. Irish Water has established a dedicated team to deal with representations and queries from public representatives. The...

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Public Private Partnerships Data (30 Jan 2018)

Eoghan Murphy: The Social Housing PPP Programme involves an investment with a capital value of €300 million.  It is to deliver 1,500 social housing units in total, via three bundles. The first bundle, which comprises six PPP sites, will provide over 500 units in the Greater Dublin Area. Two of the sites are located in the Dublin City Council area with one each in the County Council...

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Local Authority Funding (30 Jan 2018)

Eoghan Murphy: I assume the Question refers to the payment of General Purpose Grants (GPGs) and Local Property Tax (LPT) from the Local Government Fund to local authorities. Before the introduction of local retention of LPT in 2015, GPGs were my Department’s contribution towards meeting the cost to local authorities of providing a reasonable level of services to their customers. The 2014 figures...

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Housing Assistance Payment Data (30 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 over 32,000 households in receipt of HAP and over 20,000 separate landlords and agents providing accommodation to households supported by the scheme. HAP commenced in the Westmeath and Longford County Council areas on 1...

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Local Authority Housing (30 Jan 2018)

Eoghan Murphy: The allocation of social housing support is a matter for the relevant local authority in accordance with the Housing (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 2009, and associated regulations. Section 22 of the 2009 Act requires all local authorities, as a reserved function, to make an allocation scheme determining the order of priority to be accorded in the allocation of dwellings to households...

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Deposit Protection Scheme Establishment (30 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 examination of...

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Rental Sector (30 Jan 2018)

Eoghan Murphy: The Government has given priority to the early publication of a Residential Tenancies (Amendment) Bill to address urgent issues in the rental sector. My Department recently conducted a review of the Rent Predictability Measure on the basis of the Residential Tenancies Board (RTB) rent data and the recently conducted public consultation on the operation of the Rent Pressure Zones. In...

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Water and Sewerage Schemes Funding (30 Jan 2018)

Eoghan Murphy: I understand from Donegal County Council that the group water schemes (GWS) referred to are proposed extensions to the existing Meenabool/ Dunlewey GWS. My Department’s Multi-annual Rural Water Programme for 2016-2018 includes a measure for the funding of new GWS, which includes extensions to existing schemes. This is addressed through Measure 3 of the programme. In January...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Update on Rebuilding Ireland - Action Plan for Housing and Homelessness: Discussion (25 Jan 2018)

Eoghan Murphy: I do not have an opening statement as I was informed it would be of no value. It is good to get straight into questions and Deputy Casey asked a number. I am glad he raised the CSO figures because work has been ongoing in the Department for the past six or seven months on these. This is not to say the CSO vacancy figures of between 178,000 and 180,000 are wrong, rather that its definition...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Update on Rebuilding Ireland - Action Plan for Housing and Homelessness: Discussion (25 Jan 2018)

Eoghan Murphy: In our voids programme we began with homes that had been empty for a number of years and were boarded up or semi-derelict. Once we had brought those all back into use, the next group required significant capital investment as otherwise, they would be vacant for six, 12 or 18 months. If we are to tell a local authority it cannot have the funding unless a house has been vacant for more than...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Update on Rebuilding Ireland - Action Plan for Housing and Homelessness: Discussion (25 Jan 2018)

Eoghan Murphy: We will not be talking about them at all very soon, because that is where the numbers are going. A lot of progress has been made and we exceeded our targets for last year as well. I wanted to separate voids from our builds target, which I did though there was some confusion on the part of Deputy Barry Cowen as to what had happened there. It was a move for increased transparency and clarity...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Update on Rebuilding Ireland - Action Plan for Housing and Homelessness: Discussion (25 Jan 2018)

Eoghan Murphy: I thank the Senator for his comments on the work of the Department on focusing the reporting to drive greater accountability and delivery. That is the intention of what we have been trying to do over the past six months as we reviewed Rebuilding Ireland and went to refine and introduce new things, to ensure Oireachtas Members were aware of exactly what was happening. In giving that...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Update on Rebuilding Ireland - Action Plan for Housing and Homelessness: Discussion (25 Jan 2018)

Eoghan Murphy: Does the Senator believe people cannot validate that at the moment by getting in touch with the local authorities?