Results 8,321-8,340 of 26,778 for speaker:Darragh O'Brien

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Housing Provision (11 Jul 2023)

Darragh O'Brien: My Department does not hold data in relation to the average length of time spent on the social housing list. However, details on the number of households qualified for social housing support in each local authority administrative area is provided in the annual statutory Summary of Social Housing Assessments (SSHA). The most recently published summary for all counties, conducted in November...

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Housing Schemes (11 Jul 2023)

Darragh O'Brien: The Mortgage to Rent (MTR) scheme was introduced in 2012 for borrowers of commercial lending institutions and is targeted at those households in mortgage arrears who have had their mortgage position deemed unsustainable by their lender under the Mortgage Arrears Resolution Process (MARP), who agree to the voluntary surrender of their home and who have very limited options, if any, to meet...

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Departmental Data (11 Jul 2023)

Darragh O'Brien: My Department does not hold information of the specific type requested. The data may be sought from the local authority or approved housing body directly.

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Housing Provision (11 Jul 2023)

Darragh O'Brien: My Department does not hold information in relation to the total numbers of local authority housing units in the State. This information may be sought from the local authorities directly. Details of the total rent collected by local authorities and the levels of arrears are contained in the annual local authority Audit Reports prepared by the Local Government Audit Service and published by my...

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Wind Energy Guidelines (11 Jul 2023)

Darragh O'Brien: I propose to take Questions Nos. 422, 423 and 424 together. My Department is currently undertaking a focused review of the 2006 Wind Energy Development Guidelines. The review is addressing a number of key aspects including noise, setback distance, shadow flicker, community obligation, community dividend and grid connections. Guidance on the noise aspect, which is highly technical in...

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Housing Policy (11 Jul 2023)

Darragh O'Brien: Housing for All is the Government’s plan to increase the supply of housing to an average of 33,000 per year over the next decade. This includes an average of 10,000 new build social homes each year in the period to 2030. Housing for All is supported by an investment package of over €4bn per annum, through an overall combination of €12bn in direct Exchequer funding,...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Housing Provision (6 Jul 2023)

Darragh O'Brien: I thank the Deputy. We have reached Question No. 42, given there have been so many others missing right the way through.

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Housing Provision (6 Jul 2023)

Darragh O'Brien: As regards modern methods of construction, MMC, I brought a cost-of-construction report to Cabinet a few weeks ago and published it. It is a comparative between costs in Ireland, those in five other EU countries and those in Britain. The report highlights the practice as well. We are looking at the MMC piece. I have a further report to bring to Cabinet. This year and next, 1,500 social...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Water Services (6 Jul 2023)

Darragh O'Brien: Understood. To respond to Deputy O'Sullivan, he is correct that for whatever reason, the local authority did not apply for Shannon Vale to enter into the scheme I brought forward. Post Question Time, however, and with regard to Drinagh, I will follow up particularly with Shannon Vale. I will reach out again to the local authority. We need to get Uisce Éireann and the local...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Wastewater Treatment (6 Jul 2023)

Darragh O'Brien: I know that Deputy Crowe has been pushing this very hard and has been very supportive, as many others have, of this scheme. It is new. I announced €50 million for it in 2022. Effectively, we asked local authorities to apply to me in respect of schemes that would not have been brought forward under the Uisce Éireann capital programme. In April 2022 I announced a new funding...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Wastewater Treatment (6 Jul 2023)

Darragh O'Brien: A number of schemes came in right across the country. If we can get this scheme right, and I believe we can, this will evolve into a multi-annual programme. This is in addition to what we are investing already. The Deputy is 100% correct that our villages and towns across the country can play a major role in housing provision. That is why we have moved forward with the vacancy grants, for...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Wastewater Treatment (6 Jul 2023)

Darragh O'Brien: The Deputy is looking for a pre-announcement, which we cannot do. All I will say is that if schemes are good, there is no restriction per county, like one or two per county. That is not the question. We received just over 20 applications across the country - not a lot, to be frank, but enough for us to be able, in my view, to start this pilot programme. Where the land is purchased, the...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Homeless Accommodation (6 Jul 2023)

Darragh O'Brien: I assure the Deputy that I am not ignoring anything. I did not get to some of the other measures we have brought in, including the tenant in situpurchase scheme, which we have rolled out and extended since January as a mitigation measure. I have set a target of a minimum of 1,500 homes. This involves converting housing assistance payment, HAP, and rental accommodation scheme, RAS,...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Homeless Accommodation (6 Jul 2023)

Darragh O'Brien: There indeed is-----

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Homeless Accommodation (6 Jul 2023)

Darragh O'Brien: Some 60,000 households are supported through HAP tenancies right now in the private rental sector. The Deputy just said to the House that we do not need a private rental sector, which is an astonishing remark. The reality is that we are building more social houses than were built since 1975; we will do still more and will continue to do so. In my supplementary response, I will refer to...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Homeless Accommodation (6 Jul 2023)

Darragh O'Brien: What criteria would the Deputy apply? No criteria?

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Homeless Accommodation (6 Jul 2023)

Darragh O'Brien: People enter emergency accommodation for many reasons. Every month, we publish a report on it. They include people who received notices to quit, relationship break-ups and new entries to the State - there are many different reasons for that to be the case. It is important that people know that anyone who finds themselves homeless will be supported by the State in emergency accommodation....

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Homeless Accommodation (6 Jul 2023)

Darragh O'Brien: The Deputy is living in fantasy land. Homelessness is a very serious situation. I do not wish to belittle it in any way. We are doing everything we can to make sure we can drive those numbers down and exit people into permanent housing solutions.

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Water Services (6 Jul 2023)

Darragh O'Brien: The past decade has seen a significant reform of water services in Ireland. The policy paper on water sector transformation was published in February 2021, which set out our vision as a Government for water services based on the full integration of water services into Uisce Éireann as a single, publicly-owned national water services authority. The objective is to deliver a world-class...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Water Services (6 Jul 2023)

Darragh O'Brien: I have brought forward the unserved villages. I expect to make announcements in the short term around that; it is the first €50 million outside of the capital programme for Irish Water. I visited Shannonvale with the Deputy. The situation there is intolerable. I have been back to Uisce Éireann. It will provide the stage 1 strategic assessment, which will move it on to stage...