Results 8,101-8,120 of 25,732 for speaker:Darragh O'Brien

Residential Tenancies (Deferment of Termination Dates of Certain Tenancies) Bill 2023: Second Stage [Private Members] (28 Mar 2023)

Darragh O'Brien: Sinn Féin talks about it. Sinn Féin states that we need a plan to stop the exit of small landlords from the rental sector, but its plan, written in black and white, is to impose a tax of €400 on 150,000 small and medium-sized landlords. It is entitled to its various contradictory positions but it is not entitled to its own facts. It claims nothing has been done during the...

Residential Tenancies (Deferment of Termination Dates of Certain Tenancies) Bill 2023: Second Stage [Private Members] (28 Mar 2023)

Darragh O'Brien: That is simply not true.

Residential Tenancies (Deferment of Termination Dates of Certain Tenancies) Bill 2023: Second Stage [Private Members] (28 Mar 2023)

Darragh O'Brien: Here are the facts.

Residential Tenancies (Deferment of Termination Dates of Certain Tenancies) Bill 2023: Second Stage [Private Members] (28 Mar 2023)

Darragh O'Brien: In the final quarter of last year, approximately 6,000 new social homes were delivered, including almost 5,000 new-build social houses.

Residential Tenancies (Deferment of Termination Dates of Certain Tenancies) Bill 2023: Second Stage [Private Members] (28 Mar 2023)

Darragh O'Brien: At the same time, more than 1,500 local authority homes were refurbished under the voids programme and restored to use. Just prior to and during the period of the moratorium, local authorities opened some 500 additional homeless emergency beds and 170 cold-winter beds. Some 734 adults and 346 families exited homelessness in quarter 4 of 2022. In the last three months of 2022, during the...

Residential Tenancies (Deferment of Termination Dates of Certain Tenancies) Bill 2023: Second Stage [Private Members] (28 Mar 2023)

Darragh O'Brien: Supply is at the heart of this. Sinn Féin knows this but does not like this statistic either, that 30,000 new homes were completed in 2022, which is a 45% increase on the previous year. Some 25,000 first-time buyers purchased homes last year, which is the highest number on record.

Residential Tenancies (Deferment of Termination Dates of Certain Tenancies) Bill 2023: Second Stage [Private Members] (28 Mar 2023)

Darragh O'Brien: First home approvals-----

Residential Tenancies (Deferment of Termination Dates of Certain Tenancies) Bill 2023: Second Stage [Private Members] (28 Mar 2023)

Darragh O'Brien: As I was saying, more than 1,300 were approved under the first home scheme, which many renters avail of and which Sinn Féin also opposed. The help-to-buy scheme continues to assist thousands of homebuyers with their deposits, more than 37,000 so far. Again, Sinn Féin opposed that. Almost 1,300 applications to bring vacant properties back into use have been received. Sinn...

Residential Tenancies (Deferment of Termination Dates of Certain Tenancies) Bill 2023: Second Stage [Private Members] (28 Mar 2023)

Darragh O'Brien: -----were registered during the months of January and February. During that time, 1,000 new approved housing body tenancies were registered with the RTB. These are solid secure tenancies into the future. It is simply not true that in cases where tenancies end, tenants will end up homeless. Be assured that by providing help from the State, purchase with tenants in situ, dealing with the...

Residential Tenancies (Deferment of Termination Dates of Certain Tenancies) Bill 2023: Second Stage [Private Members] (28 Mar 2023)

Darragh O'Brien: That is what is there. Throughout the course of the debate on the eviction moratorium, protections that exist for renters have been lost and I will take a minute to outline them. We have a €500 tax credit that is worth €1000 in 2023. There is a 2% rent increase cap in rent pressure zones, RPZs. Rents outside RPZs can only be increased every two years. There is an...

Residential Tenancies (Deferment of Termination Dates of Certain Tenancies) Bill 2023: Second Stage [Private Members] (28 Mar 2023)

Darragh O'Brien: -----and reduce the properties that are available. The only policy Sinn Féin has brought forward in respect of individual Mom and Pop landlords supposedly to retain them is to tax them an additional €400 per year via a second-home tax.

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Wastewater Treatment (28 Mar 2023)

Darragh O'Brien: Through the Domestic Waste Water Treatment grants, financial assistance is provided by my Department to assist in carrying out remediation, repair or upgrading works to, or replacement of, domestic waste water treatment systems. The grants are available to households and are focused on areas of greatest environmental priority rather than general in application. They are administered by...

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Office of Public Works (28 Mar 2023)

Darragh O'Brien: My role with regard to the protection and management of our architectural heritage is set out in the provisions of the Planning and Development Act 2000 (as amended), as are the roles of local authorities and owners. Part IV of the Planning and Development Act 2000, as amended, gives primary responsibility to local authorities to identify and protect the architectural heritage in their...

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Water Services (28 Mar 2023)

Darragh O'Brien: The Framework for future delivery of Water Services (June 2022), identified following a comprehensive process of engagement with unions under the aegis of the Workplace Relations Commission, now enables the integration of public water services into Uisce Éireann's organisational structure, as envisaged in the Government’s Policy Paper on Water Sector Transformation (February,...

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Fire Service (28 Mar 2023)

Darragh O'Brien: I propose to take Questions Nos. 276 and 277 together. In 1985, a compulsory retirement age of 55 years for retained firefighters was introduced at national level as a result of a lengthy negotiation process engaged in by the then Local Government Management Services Board representing local authority managers and the trade unions representing the retained firefighters. This national...

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Defective Building Materials (28 Mar 2023)

Darragh O'Brien: There are a number of reviews of standards (including the review of I.S. 465:2018) with respect to defective concrete blocks (DCB), which are currently being carried out by the National Standards Authority of Ireland (NSAI), which is an autonomous body under the aegis of the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment. My Department has requested NSAI to identify the necessary research...

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Public Procurement Contracts (28 Mar 2023)

Darragh O'Brien: My Department has not awarded any contracts to the seven named companies in the period 2016 to present.

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Official Travel (28 Mar 2023)

Darragh O'Brien: St. Patrick’s Day offers a unique opportunity to promote Ireland’s economic and political interests overseas, with levels of publicity and media attention unmatched by the national day of any other country. This year I travelled to the United States of America for the St. Patrick’s Day period, where I undertook a comprehensive programme of political, economic and civic...

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Defective Building Materials (28 Mar 2023)

Darragh O'Brien: Following on from the Government decision of the 30 November 2021 in respect of the enhanced Defective Concrete Blocks Grant scheme, the Government approved the Remediation of Dwellings Damaged by the Use of Defective Concrete Blocks (DCB) Bill 2022 on 21 June and the Bill passed through both Houses of the Oireachtas and was subsequently signed into law by the President on the 23 July, 2022....

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Planning Issues (28 Mar 2023)

Darragh O'Brien: An Bord Pleanála (the Board) is the national independent statutory body with responsibility for the determination of planning appeals and direct applications for strategic infrastructure and other developments under the Planning and Development Act 2000 (the Act), as amended, and certain other Acts. The Board is the competent authority with responsibility for making decisions in respect...