Results 11,081-11,100 of 26,886 for speaker:Darragh O'Brien

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Housing Policy (28 Sep 2022)

Darragh O'Brien: The Deputy is just trying to piggyback on this to create controversy and do down a scheme that is already working very well. To answer Deputy Naughten-----

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Housing Policy (28 Sep 2022)

Darragh O'Brien: You are easily provoked.

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Housing Policy (28 Sep 2022)

Darragh O'Brien: Being serious, this is, as Deputy Naughten said, a no-brainer. It is open to every local authority. It is a simple application. To answer Deputy McNamara's question, if the local authority designates the house as vacant, so if someone comes to it with an application when purchasing a house and the local authority says it has been vacant for two years or more, that is all that is needed....

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Housing Policy (28 Sep 2022)

Darragh O'Brien: If the property is on it, but if it not on it-----

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Housing Policy (28 Sep 2022)

Darragh O'Brien: Yesterday, the Minister for Finance brought forward the vacant property tax, which will be managed by Revenue, and we have the vacant site register too. I can assure the Deputies that if the interest in this scheme translates into applications, which is happening now, we will provide additional funding above and beyond. There is no question about that.

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Housing Policy (28 Sep 2022)

Darragh O'Brien: There is a derelict site levy in place already.

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Housing Policy (28 Sep 2022)

Darragh O'Brien: I am not the Minister for Finance but the derelict site levy is in place. We need that stick. The vacant property tax is a commitment in the programme for Government and an action in Housing for All that we are bringing forward too. We have made some quite significant changes to the repair and lease scheme recently and removed a lot of those barriers. Repair and lease is a very good way...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Housing Policy (28 Sep 2022)

Darragh O'Brien: November.

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Housing Policy (28 Sep 2022)

Darragh O'Brien: It is a fair point. We launched the scheme in July to get it up and running and test the interest in it. Without pushing it and doing a public information campaign there has already been a very good response. There will be a public information campaign around it and we will expand it to the cities. I am sorry; I neglected to answer that question. It will be in the month of November but I...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Housing Policy (28 Sep 2022)

Darragh O'Brien: I propose to take Questions Nos. 7, 14, 36, 41 and 45 together. I acknowledge the Deputy's input on this. We have discussed it. This scheme can be vitally important in breathing life back into our towns, villages and rural areas. I will explain where we are at the moment. As Deputy Naughten will know, pathway 4 of Housing for All sets out a blueprint to address vacancy and make...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Housing Provision (28 Sep 2022)

Darragh O'Brien: As the Deputy knows, Housing for All is our plan to increase the supply of housing to get to an average of 33,000 homes per year over the next decade. Exchequer funding of more than €4 billion is available in 2022 to deliver the increased number of new social and affordable homes. Overall expenditure on the housing programme will not be determined, as the Deputy knows, until the end...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Housing Provision (28 Sep 2022)

Darragh O'Brien: The Dublin Housing Delivery Group, which I established and includes the four Dublin local authorities working with the Land Development Agency, LDA, has done a very good piece of work in highlighting the issue of the need for additional lands, particularly post 2024. It is looking at mechanisms whereby local authorities can purchase such land. We hope that councillors in local authorities...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Housing Provision (28 Sep 2022)

Darragh O'Brien: I am not saying anything about those memos at all. I am saying to the Deputy we have €4 billion to invest in social and affordable housing this year. We are working towards delivering social housing at scale - the highest number of new builds have been delivered this year than in any year since the foundation of the State - and affordable housing, also at scale, through our local...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Housing Policy (28 Sep 2022)

Darragh O'Brien: Any fair analysis would show I have already made significant changes in the five counties I could address straight away. To Deputy Naughten's point, I am looking at what we can do with regard to discretion. I have received a number of good examples of cases where people were marginally over the limit because of a change in circumstances in the previous year and have since fallen back under...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Housing Provision (28 Sep 2022)

Darragh O'Brien: The affordable housing fund is available to assist all local authorities in bringing forward affordable housing schemes. Following the publication of the Government's Housing for All plan last September, I asked local authorities to prepare housing delivery action plans. Each local authority, including Clare County Council, was asked to assess the level of housing demand with affordability...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Housing Provision (28 Sep 2022)

Darragh O'Brien: I did not say that.

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Housing Provision (28 Sep 2022)

Darragh O'Brien: Let us not try to create a controversy that is not there.

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Housing Provision (28 Sep 2022)

Darragh O'Brien: Let us be straight about this. There are two schemes being worked on by Clare County Council. It must submit those plans to me. In a broad sense, we have already approved approximately 1,800 affordable purchase homes, led by local authorities in 12 different counties and under 27 projects. New counties, such as Wicklow, Westmeath and Limerick, have recently come into that fold. The fund...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Housing Provision (28 Sep 2022)

Darragh O'Brien: No one is saying that Clare County Council is dragging its feet. The fund has been open for approximately one year. As I said, we have already approved 27 projects across the country in that year. Many of those are now being built. Over 1,800 affordable homes will be provided through local authorities. I have given examples of other counties that have made submissions. This is not...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Housing Provision (28 Sep 2022)

Darragh O'Brien: I might sit down with the Deputy and explain the schemes to him in more detail. I am happy to meet him. I am saying that to be fair to the local authority, it has to put work together to make a submission to seek the subvention under the affordable housing fund. The fund is open to all local authorities, including Clare County Council. We will continue to work with the local authority to...