Results 6,721-6,740 of 15,555 for speaker:Eoghan Murphy

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Housing Policy (7 Dec 2017)

Eoghan Murphy: To do that will require a change in the guidelines. I accept that we have had to take a brief pause here, but we are talking about the development of our country for the next 20 years and it is important that we get these new guidelines right, so that when they come into operation people will know exactly what the standards are and what they are building to for the next five, ten and 15...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Rental Sector (7 Dec 2017)

Eoghan Murphy: Rebuilding Ireland sets out that some 87,000 households will have their housing needs met by local authorities, using either the Rental Accommodation Scheme, RAS, or the Housing Assistance Payment, HAP, over the period to 2021. Exchequer funding for HAP in 2017 is €152.7 million. This will meet the continuing costs of existing HAP households at the start of the year and...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Rental Sector (7 Dec 2017)

Eoghan Murphy: We are spending taxpayers' money on Rebuilding Ireland, building more houses and looking after people who are homeless. There is going to be a 46% increase in spending next year from the commitments we got in the budget. That amounts to €1.9 billion. Some €1.4 billion of that will be capital spending on social house building. That will deliver approximately 5,900 social...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Housing Policy (7 Dec 2017)

Eoghan Murphy: The income criteria that will allow people to access these homes are being worked out in the context of the affordability scheme I am going to announce. We know that in 70% of LIHAF sites, two-bedroom and three-bedroom homes will come in under €320,000. The vast majority of them will come in under €300,000.

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Housing Policy (7 Dec 2017)

Eoghan Murphy: I ask the Deputy not to interrupt me. Of course affordability depends on a person's income. We intend to bring back the affordability measures that existed previously in the context of social and affordable housing. We will bring in a scheme for the cohort of people who are not eligible for social housing because their incomes are just above the limits and who cannot afford to buy because...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Vacant Properties (7 Dec 2017)

Eoghan Murphy: Vacant social houses, which are categorised as voids, need far greater repairs than normal reletting works to bring them to a suitable letting condition. They are vacant pending that work. Strong funding support has been given to all local authorities to remediate vacant social housing so the homes involved can be let again as soon as possible. This Exchequer funding is in addition to the...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Vacant Properties (7 Dec 2017)

Eoghan Murphy: We both acknowledge that the voids programme is an important piece of work. It is much cheaper for a local authority to get an empty social housing property that has been vacant, and could be vacant for a long time, back into use than it is to build a new property. When such homes become part of the social housing stock, people can be housed in them. It is important, in the interests of...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Vacant Properties (7 Dec 2017)

Eoghan Murphy: We have put more than €100 million into the voids programme. The NOAC report counted voids at a point in time. We have given figures in respect of the voids we have funded through the local authorities to get such properties back into use. Of course that includes properties that became vacant after NOAC did its work in 2014. There is no discrepancy between the figures. We follow...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Housing Policy (7 Dec 2017)

Eoghan Murphy: Arising from a commitment I gave in October, my Department established a technical working group to update national policy advice on apartment developments and to identify and assess innovative solutions to our current accommodation pressures over and above conventional housing and apartment developments. The work of this group is nearing completion and will feed into the publication of new...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Housing Policy (7 Dec 2017)

Eoghan Murphy: The Government acknowledges the affordability pressures faced by households with low to moderate incomes in particular parts of the country. It is precisely for that reason that Rebuilding Ireland has prioritised the supply of new homes to meet current and pent-up demand as well as helping to moderate house prices and rents. For households in the lowest income brackets, I am prioritising...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Housing Policy (7 Dec 2017)

Eoghan Murphy: I was quite clear about this both in my answer and in committee. We are about to announce an affordability scheme and it is being designed at the moment. I have met with bodies like Ó Cualann which have carried out affordability projects through running co-operative housing with local authorities, so as to see how we can draw up our own affordability scheme criteria. It is important...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Housing Policy (7 Dec 2017)

Eoghan Murphy: I ask Deputy Ó Broin not to deliberately misinterpret what I just said. What I said was that the €25 million that was secured from budget 2018 and 2019 would deliver a minimum of 650 homes. I also said that with regard to other sites, Poolbeg, for example, we will have an additional 15% of affordable units which will deliver approximately 350 homes. There is also an increase in...

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Housing Data (7 Dec 2017)

Eoghan Murphy: The housing activity reports, which are available on my Department’s website, show that 19,246 new homes were granted planning permission in the 12 months to end-June 2017, an increase of 49% over the same period last year.  Commencement notices are up by 37%, with notices for 17,151 new homes nationwide submitted in the year to end-...

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Tenant Purchase Scheme Review (7 Dec 2017)

Eoghan Murphy: The Tenant (Incremental) Purchase Scheme came into operation on 1 January 2016.  The Scheme is open to eligible tenants, including joint tenants, of local authority houses that are available for sale under the Scheme. To be eligible, tenants must meet certain criteria, including having a minimum reckonable income of €15,000 per annum and having been in receipt of social housing...

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Housing Data (7 Dec 2017)

Eoghan Murphy: The 2017 target for the delivery of social housing under the categories listed in the Question is 4,450 units, including Local Authority Build, Acquisitions and Voids. Provisional  data to end Q3 2017 indicates that  just over 3,000 of these units had already been delivered. When speaking in terms of “real social houses”, we must...

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Housing Policy (7 Dec 2017)

Eoghan Murphy: Rebuilding Ireland has put in place the funding required to substantially accelerate the delivery of social housing. I recently secured a further €500m for additional capital investment in the period to 2021, which means that I have been able to increase the overall target for social housing delivery from 47,000 homes to 50,000, supported by over...

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Local Infrastructure Housing Activation Fund (7 Dec 2017)

Eoghan Murphy: The Government acknowledges the affordability pressures faced by households with low to moderate incomes, particularly in parts of the country where the demand-supply imbalance is resulting in increasing house prices and rent inflation. It is precisely for that reason that Rebuilding Ireland has prioritised the supply of new homes to meet current and pent-up demand as well as...

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Local Authority Housing Provision (7 Dec 2017)

Eoghan Murphy: Through the supports made available under Rebuilding Ireland, funding is available to all local authorities to deliver additional social housing stock through new construction projects and through the acquisition of new and previously owned houses/apartments for social housing use, including through working with approved housing bodies. Details on the number of properties purchased by...

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Private Rented Accommodation (7 Dec 2017)

Eoghan Murphy: I have recently announced a series of measures in relation to the rental sector, including a two-year change plan to develop and strengthen the role of the Residential Tenancies Board (RTB) as a pro-active regulator for the sector.   Following on from this and addressing calls from both landlords and tenants for further clarity in relation to the definition of "substantial...

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Social and Affordable Housing Provision (7 Dec 2017)

Eoghan Murphy: Reports such as the one produced by the organisation concerned are an important addition to the debate on housing in Ireland. I note that there is considerable common ground and consensus between this Report and the Government’s Rebuilding Ireland Action Plan for Housing and Homelessness and the Strategy for the Rental Sector. As part of the review of...