Results 12,861-12,880 of 26,864 for speaker:Darragh O'Brien

Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Estimates for Public Services 2022
Vote 16 - Valuation Office (Revised)
Vote 23 - Property Registration Authority (Revised)
Vote 34 - Housing, Local Government and Heritage (Revised) (10 Feb 2022)

Darragh O'Brien: We have taken the full capital carryover that is available and that has been agreed. The Deputy will have seen from the briefing he got that we were able to reallocate funds from capital to current to help with what the Minister of State, Deputy Peter Burke, raised earlier about funding our local authorities through Covid. In the context of the budget, there was a minute surrender of in the...

Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Estimates for Public Services 2022
Vote 16 - Valuation Office (Revised)
Vote 23 - Property Registration Authority (Revised)
Vote 34 - Housing, Local Government and Heritage (Revised) (10 Feb 2022)

Darragh O'Brien: Something in that region. We have the full capital carryover of €276 million. We were not unique in that. Every Department on the capital side, because of Covid, had to carry over.

Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Estimates for Public Services 2022
Vote 16 - Valuation Office (Revised)
Vote 23 - Property Registration Authority (Revised)
Vote 34 - Housing, Local Government and Heritage (Revised) (10 Feb 2022)

Darragh O'Brien: The second question is important and I would like to deal with it in detail. Maybe in the next round I can come back on that. I will explain the expenditure piece. Before Covid, we were spending about €168 million on homeless services. The additional funding we gave to bring it to over €200 million were the Covid supports we needed to shield people and provide services. The...

Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Estimates for Public Services 2022
Vote 16 - Valuation Office (Revised)
Vote 23 - Property Registration Authority (Revised)
Vote 34 - Housing, Local Government and Heritage (Revised) (10 Feb 2022)

Darragh O'Brien: The non-seweraged villages initiative will relate to that purely. Towns and villages that have existing treatment plants will not apply for that fund. I want to get this up and running. I think it can have an impact. The regular capital plan can apply there. I can talk to the Deputy separately about that. He is 100% right and the affordability measures being brought forward do not...

Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Estimates for Public Services 2022
Vote 16 - Valuation Office (Revised)
Vote 23 - Property Registration Authority (Revised)
Vote 34 - Housing, Local Government and Heritage (Revised) (10 Feb 2022)

Darragh O'Brien: I thank Deputy Higgins. I did not mean to sidestep her question. To answer it, the affordable purchase regulations will be published in the coming weeks, in March. Some work is being done on it. The cost-rental regulations have been published already. We need to tell people the parameters within which they need to operate. As I said to Deputy Flaherty, the first home shared equity...

Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Estimates for Public Services 2022
Vote 16 - Valuation Office (Revised)
Vote 23 - Property Registration Authority (Revised)
Vote 34 - Housing, Local Government and Heritage (Revised) (10 Feb 2022)

Darragh O'Brien: I do not yet have the final figure. We are just checking through it. Indications for social housing delivery, particularly new builds, is that it will be marginally increased from 2020. Those are initial figures but we need to check them.

Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Estimates for Public Services 2022
Vote 16 - Valuation Office (Revised)
Vote 23 - Property Registration Authority (Revised)
Vote 34 - Housing, Local Government and Heritage (Revised) (10 Feb 2022)

Darragh O'Brien: We were both on the committee that looked at turnkey housing. Turnkey housing is ground-up delivery of public homes on public land. I know the Deputy agrees with that. I think we will give as much detail on that as we can. I have initial returns that need to be checked through. Once we have them, we will submit them to the committee.

Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Estimates for Public Services 2022
Vote 16 - Valuation Office (Revised)
Vote 23 - Property Registration Authority (Revised)
Vote 34 - Housing, Local Government and Heritage (Revised) (10 Feb 2022)

Darragh O'Brien: I will answer the Deputy's last question first. This is complex legislation. Much work is happening in the Office of the Attorney General in this regard. I hope to publish the general scheme in March. In fairness, committee members have offered to co-operate to expedite its passage through the committee, Dáil and Seanad. We need to pass the legislation by the summer recess. I...

Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Estimates for Public Services 2022
Vote 16 - Valuation Office (Revised)
Vote 23 - Property Registration Authority (Revised)
Vote 34 - Housing, Local Government and Heritage (Revised) (10 Feb 2022)

Darragh O'Brien: Absolutely. The matter of the foundations and the standard is being reviewed by Engineers Ireland. If we find that there is a reason to include foundations, I am not against that at all. Regarding the terms of reference for SCSI, I sent correspondence back to residents this evening. There has been contact between residents, SCSI, my office and me. We are excluding nothing. Those are...

Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Estimates for Public Services 2022
Vote 16 - Valuation Office (Revised)
Vote 23 - Property Registration Authority (Revised)
Vote 34 - Housing, Local Government and Heritage (Revised) (10 Feb 2022)

Darragh O'Brien: The SCSI will operate independently of me. I have spent a long time moving this forward. I will take what the SCSI brings forward independently of me and my Department-----

Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Estimates for Public Services 2022
Vote 16 - Valuation Office (Revised)
Vote 23 - Property Registration Authority (Revised)
Vote 34 - Housing, Local Government and Heritage (Revised) (10 Feb 2022)

Darragh O'Brien: -----and we will base our decisions on that.

Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Estimates for Public Services 2022
Vote 16 - Valuation Office (Revised)
Vote 23 - Property Registration Authority (Revised)
Vote 34 - Housing, Local Government and Heritage (Revised) (10 Feb 2022)

Darragh O'Brien: On the sliding scale, I do not want to be seen in any way to be butting in on the independence of SCSI but it is unlikely there will be a sliding scale in the final set-up.

Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Estimates for Public Services 2022
Vote 16 - Valuation Office (Revised)
Vote 23 - Property Registration Authority (Revised)
Vote 34 - Housing, Local Government and Heritage (Revised) (10 Feb 2022)

Darragh O'Brien: It is a good question. In dealing first with the Minister, Deputy Ryan, SEAI grant aid will be available. I need to let the SCSI do its work.

Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Estimates for Public Services 2022
Vote 16 - Valuation Office (Revised)
Vote 23 - Property Registration Authority (Revised)
Vote 34 - Housing, Local Government and Heritage (Revised) (10 Feb 2022)

Darragh O'Brien: There has been good co-operation on this across the board. We want to get people's lives and homes back.

Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Estimates for Public Services 2022
Vote 16 - Valuation Office (Revised)
Vote 23 - Property Registration Authority (Revised)
Vote 34 - Housing, Local Government and Heritage (Revised) (10 Feb 2022)

Darragh O'Brien: I thank both Deputies for their questions. The Minister of State, Deputy Noonan, is driving forward the electoral commission. Art O’Leary, the former Secretary General to the President, is moving to the commission and we want to get it established. I expect and hope the Bill will come to the committee in this quarter. It will be significant legislation. We have a census this year...

Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Estimates for Public Services 2022
Vote 16 - Valuation Office (Revised)
Vote 23 - Property Registration Authority (Revised)
Vote 34 - Housing, Local Government and Heritage (Revised) (10 Feb 2022)

Darragh O'Brien: We have discussed this matter a number of times. I am glad the Deputy continues to highlight it. I have established the national homeless action committee, as he knows. I want standards in this area, especially private emergency accommodation, dealt with. The Deputy mentioned the DRHE's new standards for emergency accommodation, which focus on private emergency accommodation. They are an...

Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Estimates for Public Services 2022
Vote 16 - Valuation Office (Revised)
Vote 23 - Property Registration Authority (Revised)
Vote 34 - Housing, Local Government and Heritage (Revised) (10 Feb 2022)

Darragh O'Brien: I do not want to take up the Deputy's time but may I mention one quick thing? It is important. I was with Mendicity every week and met people who are accessing its services. When somebody comes out of a hostel, they may unfortunately get beaten up on the street. That is the challenge but there is no question but that we can do better in certain areas. The application of standards,...

Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Estimates for Public Services 2022
Vote 16 - Valuation Office (Revised)
Vote 23 - Property Registration Authority (Revised)
Vote 34 - Housing, Local Government and Heritage (Revised) (10 Feb 2022)

Darragh O'Brien: That is a good question. We are engaging with them. I have more housing summits with local authorities the week after next. We have approved another 250 posts across the 31 local authorities for the housing delivery teams. To look at the figures for whole-time equivalents, actual staff, for 2020 - I do not have the full-year figures for 2021 - we had 29,366 staff in local authorities....

Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Estimates for Public Services 2022
Vote 16 - Valuation Office (Revised)
Vote 23 - Property Registration Authority (Revised)
Vote 34 - Housing, Local Government and Heritage (Revised) (10 Feb 2022)

Darragh O'Brien: That funding is for retrofitting units falling within our remit, social housing. We are targeting approximately 2,400 units.

Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Estimates for Public Services 2022
Vote 16 - Valuation Office (Revised)
Vote 23 - Property Registration Authority (Revised)
Vote 34 - Housing, Local Government and Heritage (Revised) (10 Feb 2022)

Darragh O'Brien: It is particularly key in addressing the issue of fuel poverty.