Results 10,461-10,480 of 26,787 for speaker:Darragh O'Brien

Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Estimates for Public Services 2022
Vote 34 - Housing, Local Government and Heritage (Supplementary) (24 Nov 2022)

Darragh O'Brien: I am. The local property tax is an important stream of income for the local authorities. It amounts to €475 million. There are those who would dispense with that and seek to have central grants from Government instead. I am confident. The baseline review needs to be done and it is being done. It has been commenced.

Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Estimates for Public Services 2022
Vote 34 - Housing, Local Government and Heritage (Supplementary) (24 Nov 2022)

Darragh O'Brien: I am always happy to engage, if the committee sets its schedule for quarter 1 next year. In fairness, it would be useful when we have concluded this year and collated the 2022 delivery figures. I would be quite happy to come into committee, if I am still in Cabinet. I may not be. Who knows? Maybe Deputy Gould knows.

Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Estimates for Public Services 2022
Vote 34 - Housing, Local Government and Heritage (Supplementary) (24 Nov 2022)

Darragh O'Brien: The committee schedules its business.

Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Estimates for Public Services 2022
Vote 34 - Housing, Local Government and Heritage (Supplementary) (24 Nov 2022)

Darragh O'Brien: I am open to that. It would be useful that we could go through the final delivery of social housing, in particular, the different types of streams within it and the different types of programmes we have delivered.

Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Estimates for Public Services 2022
Vote 34 - Housing, Local Government and Heritage (Supplementary) (24 Nov 2022)

Darragh O'Brien: I would not necessarily agree with the Deputy's last comment. What we are looking for on this is that we write down the debts on specific sites for the delivery of affordable and social housing. These are on sites that are delivered already. The Deputy is correct that it will help in the viability of those. Obviously, the first piece we want to look at is the social housing piece to...

Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Estimates for Public Services 2022
Vote 34 - Housing, Local Government and Heritage (Supplementary) (24 Nov 2022)

Darragh O'Brien: I mentioned it earlier on. By way of approximation, it is on or about €300 million. That is what we are looking at in that space. The Deputy should not hold me exactly to that. That is an approximation.

Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Estimates for Public Services 2022
Vote 34 - Housing, Local Government and Heritage (Supplementary) (24 Nov 2022)

Darragh O'Brien: We already last year moved on the debt around unsold affordables quite significantly. We funded local government to levels that it has not been funded previously. The Deputy's question is a good one. If one looks at the €300 million that is there, to give the Deputy a sense of it, perhaps one third of that relates to land that would be difficult to develop. I discussed this with...

Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Estimates for Public Services 2022
Vote 34 - Housing, Local Government and Heritage (Supplementary) (24 Nov 2022)

Darragh O'Brien: First, in fairness, the Deputy accepted - I am not making this as a political point - the step towards €100 million to develop sites and reduce that debt is significant and is welcomed by local authorities.

Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Estimates for Public Services 2022
Vote 34 - Housing, Local Government and Heritage (Supplementary) (24 Nov 2022)

Darragh O'Brien: We will work with the sector to resolve sites that are not suitable for housing. That is something that we will do, potentially, through the Housing Finance Agency, as well. We have seen the number of interest-only loans significantly reduce but there is still a burden there. I acknowledge that. The local property tax is an important stream of funding for local government. For those...

Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Estimates for Public Services 2022
Vote 34 - Housing, Local Government and Heritage (Supplementary) (24 Nov 2022)

Darragh O'Brien: I think that all of us would agree the scheme for the derelict sites levy, and the collection of the levy, does not work to the level it should. As Deputies will know, we will bring forward a vacant property tax, which is important particularly for vacant properties. We have also changed the repair and lease scheme to make it easier to bring vacant and many derelict-----

Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Estimates for Public Services 2022
Vote 34 - Housing, Local Government and Heritage (Supplementary) (24 Nov 2022)

Darragh O'Brien: I am thankful we have seen, over the past number of years, that while vacancy and dereliction is too high it is reducing, and reducing substantially year on year.

Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Estimates for Public Services 2022
Vote 34 - Housing, Local Government and Heritage (Supplementary) (24 Nov 2022)

Darragh O'Brien: It is a brand new scheme.

Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Estimates for Public Services 2022
Vote 34 - Housing, Local Government and Heritage (Supplementary) (24 Nov 2022)

Darragh O'Brien: The Deputy wants the scheme to be expanded yet his colleague who is sat beside him wants to abolish the scheme. I suggest his party makes its mind up.

Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Estimates for Public Services 2022
Vote 34 - Housing, Local Government and Heritage (Supplementary) (24 Nov 2022)

Darragh O'Brien: The scheme opened in August and I know the Deputy would like the scheme to fail.

Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Estimates for Public Services 2022
Vote 34 - Housing, Local Government and Heritage (Supplementary) (24 Nov 2022)

Darragh O'Brien: I know the Deputy would like the scheme to fail but it will not and will be a great hit.

Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Estimates for Public Services 2022
Vote 34 - Housing, Local Government and Heritage (Supplementary) (24 Nov 2022)

Darragh O'Brien: There are other schemes such as the buy and renew scheme, which we need to move on, and the repair and release scheme. There is also using a compulsory purchase order, CPO, on vacant properties.

Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Estimates for Public Services 2022
Vote 34 - Housing, Local Government and Heritage (Supplementary) (24 Nov 2022)

Darragh O'Brien: The Croí Cónaithe scheme has been extended to include rural homes, towns, villages and cities. There has been incredible interest shown in the scheme and very strong applications through it. The scheme is new and will work. I can come back to the Deputy about the scheme in quarter 1 next year, if I am still in this job.

Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Estimates for Public Services 2022
Vote 34 - Housing, Local Government and Heritage (Supplementary) (24 Nov 2022)

Darragh O'Brien: I would love to discuss the scheme with the Deputy next year but maybe he will have changed his mind by that stage.

Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Estimates for Public Services 2022
Vote 34 - Housing, Local Government and Heritage (Supplementary) (24 Nov 2022)

Darragh O'Brien: Perhaps the Deputy would talk to Deputy Ó Broin.

Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Estimates for Public Services 2022
Vote 34 - Housing, Local Government and Heritage (Supplementary) (24 Nov 2022)

Darragh O'Brien: The Vice Chairman has asked good questions. The Croí Cónaithe scheme could be an important vehicle for us to bring a lot of derelict and vacant properties back into use. The scheme is already taking hold. Croí Cónaithe was launched on 8 August and in the past two weeks we have expanded the scheme to rural homes and cities. Vacancies are a scourge and we need to tackle...