Results 11,781-11,800 of 15,060 for speaker:Eoin Ó Broin

Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Residential Tenancies (Amendment) (No. 2) Bill 2018: Committee Stage (11 Apr 2019)

Eoin Ó Broin: At the informal briefing two issues arose. There were concerns that the timeline of the new process, at its very longest, could be excessively long. The Minister said he would look at it to see if there was some way of shortening it. In terms of the amendments tabled here, is it the view of the Minister that those amendments assist us in any way or provide for those concerns? There was...

Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Residential Tenancies (Amendment) (No. 2) Bill 2018: Committee Stage (11 Apr 2019)

Eoin Ó Broin: The shorter processes might involve something like a landlord who is in breach of the rent pressure zones legislation. If he or she owns up to that and accepts the sanction, he or she can do that. It is within his or her gift. The RTB pointed out to us that the real value for it of the new investigative and sanction powers is that if someone is breaching the rent pressure zone legislation,...

Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Residential Tenancies (Amendment) (No. 2) Bill 2018: Committee Stage (11 Apr 2019)

Eoin Ó Broin: I wanted to clarify that point in respect of section 34. Will potential breaches of all the section 34 notice-to-quit criteria fall under this new investigative power?

Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Residential Tenancies (Amendment) (No. 2) Bill 2018: Committee Stage (11 Apr 2019)

Eoin Ó Broin: Perfect.

Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Residential Tenancies (Amendment) (No. 2) Bill 2018: Committee Stage (11 Apr 2019)

Eoin Ó Broin: I move amendment No. 136: In page 25, to delete lines 38 to 41, and in page 26, to delete lines 1 to 3. I will be withdrawing that amendment, due to the drafting error, but reserve the right to reintroduce it on Report Stage.

Proposed approval by Dáil Éireann of the Direct Election of Mayor Plebiscite Regulations 2019: Motion (10 Apr 2019)

Eoin Ó Broin: Three words come to mind when describing the position in which we find ourselves. One is to welcome the detail of the proposals the Minister of State published last week, about which I will talk. I am disappointed that things I would like to see in them are not in them and I will bring them to the attention of the Minister of State, too. Notwithstanding the fact that Sinn Féin will...

Proposed approval by Dáil Éireann of the Direct Election of Mayor Plebiscite Regulations 2019: Motion (10 Apr 2019)

Eoin Ó Broin: It is very good that they are being taken out. I am glad to see that the mayor will still have a role to play in policy initiation in strategic planning, but the exclusions related to planning applications are sensible. With regard to the expression of my disappointment, it is not that I expected these things to be included, but I would still like to see them included. There is no...

Building the Housing of the Future: Motion [Private Members] (10 Apr 2019)

Eoin Ó Broin: I listened very carefully to the Minister and it is clear he is not living in the same place as the rest of us. His Department's homelessness report published two weeks ago shows homelessness has reached its highest level since those reports began and, in fact, his own report is a significant underestimation of the real level. A subsequent report by the Residential Tenancies Board, a...

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Approved Housing Bodies (10 Apr 2019)

Eoin Ó Broin: 208. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government the number of AHB PandA agreements commenced in 2018; the average length of the agreements; the average cost of these agreements; and the details of all costs covered in the monthly availability agreement payment. [16887/19]

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Public Private Partnerships Data (10 Apr 2019)

Eoin Ó Broin: 209. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government the details of all costs covered by the monthly availability payment to a consortium (details supplied) for the first tranche of 534 PPP social houses. [16888/19]

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Public Private Partnerships Data (10 Apr 2019)

Eoin Ó Broin: 210. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government if the public sector benchmark exercised conducted to ensure value for money in the awarding of contracts to public private contracts to consortia for the delivery of the first tranche of social housing awarded in March 2019 to a company (details supplied) will be published. [16898/19]

An Bille um an Ochtú Leasú is Tríocha ar an mBunreacht (Neodracht) 2018 : An Dara Céim [Comhaltaí Príobháideacha] - Thirty-Eighth Amendment of the Constitution (Neutrality) Bill 2018: Second Stage [Private Members] (9 Apr 2019)

Eoin Ó Broin: It is hard to understand why any party in this House would oppose this Bill. Since the Lisbon treaty, there has been a step change in the development of a European Union common defence policy. It is worthwhile reminding ourselves what that step change involved. Article 28 of that treaty committed member states, "to make civilian and military capabilities available to the Union for the...

Saincheisteanna Tráthúla - Topical Issue Debate: School Accommodation Provision (9 Apr 2019)

Eoin Ó Broin: As the Minister will be aware, when the four-year schools capital programme was announced last year, there was to be an eight-classroom primary school established in the Newcastle-Rathcoole-Saggart schools planning area. While this announcement was welcomed, there was some surprise that the school was to be located down in the Citywest-Fortunestown end of the area, rather than, as everybody...

Saincheisteanna Tráthúla - Topical Issue Debate: School Accommodation Provision (9 Apr 2019)

Eoin Ó Broin: I thank the Minister for his reply. It is a little disappointing, although in fairness, I would not expect him to have the full details of some of the changes taking place. It is important for him to understand there are very significant demographic and residential changes occurring in this area, both at the Citywest end of the school area and in Rathcoole and Newcastle. The concern Deputy...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Private Rented Accommodation (9 Apr 2019)

Eoin Ó Broin: The difficulty is that we replace one level of instability with another level of instability. Again, I draw the Minister's attention to what is happening in a number of large European cities, where large institutional investors are not long-term professional landlords in the way the Minister has described but short-term funds looking for short-term gain. Of course, here, for those...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Private Rented Accommodation (9 Apr 2019)

Eoin Ó Broin: 73. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government his views on the significant increase in the number of institutional investors in the residential property market and the impact this is having on security of tenure and affordability; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [16413/19]

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Private Rented Accommodation (9 Apr 2019)

Eoin Ó Broin: As the Minister will be aware, during the past two years we have lost approximately 12,000 rental properties according to the Residential Tenancies Board as a result of accidental buy-to-let landlords exiting the market. We have also seen a significant increase in the level of institutional investment in recent years, both with respect to building and the buying up of blocks of apartments....

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Private Rented Accommodation (9 Apr 2019)

Eoin Ó Broin: An aspect of the Minister's reply that concerns me is that it does not address a particular part of what is happening in the rental sector not only here but globally, which is certain types of institutional investors with certain types of business models have a very clear role in driving up the price both of land and of rent or purchase properties but also they can add to increasing levels of...

Ceisteanna - Questions (Resumed) - Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Social and Affordable Housing (9 Apr 2019)

Eoin Ó Broin: None of what the Minister of State said reassures me that there is not a significant cost variance between approved housing body availability, payment agreements and public private partnerships. At the heart of this is the public sector benchmark, which is used to calculate that so-called value for money exercise. None of us get to see it. There is no transparency around it and we are not...

Ceisteanna - Questions (Resumed) - Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Social and Affordable Housing (9 Apr 2019)

Eoin Ó Broin: If I understand properly, the Minister of State has not seen the public sector benchmark, so he cannot unequivocally say that this represents value for money and he is taking it on trust. If one takes two housing projects that commenced construction today, the public private partnership that is currently under construction and traditional social housing delivered by a local authority and an...