Results 13,361-13,380 of 15,065 for speaker:Eoin Ó Broin

Housing (Homeless Families) Bill 2017: Second Stage [Private Members] (15 Nov 2017)

Eoin Ó Broin: I thank Deputy Jan O'Sullivan for tabling this valuable legislation for our consideration. I am happy to hear it will be supported by the Government. This is not just a theoretical piece of legislation, it will have a real, practical impact. The Deputy outlined some of the families she has dealt with in her constituency and elsewhere who have been affected by the lack of protection, the...

Topical Issue Debate: Traveller Accommodation Provision (15 Nov 2017)

Eoin Ó Broin: I thank the Minister of State for his reply and acknowledge, again, the commitment we have given to work with the Government on this to ensure we get the right result. I welcome the establishment of the expert group and look forward to the announcement the Minister will make following the receipt of correspondence from the national Traveller accommodation consultative committee. I welcome...

Topical Issue Debate: Traveller Accommodation Provision (15 Nov 2017)

Eoin Ó Broin: The Minister of State is aware that two very important reports on the issue of Travellers and Traveller accommodation were published in the past four weeks. The first report was commissioned by the Housing Agency and the Minister of State's own Department was involved in it. It was conducted by independent researchers looking at the Traveller accommodation programmes since their inception....

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Review of Estimates for Public Services 2017: Vote 34 - Housing, Planning and Local Government (15 Nov 2017)

Eoin Ó Broin: You will not need to be lenient with me, Chairman.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Review of Estimates for Public Services 2017: Vote 34 - Housing, Planning and Local Government (15 Nov 2017)

Eoin Ó Broin: I agree with the Minister of State, Deputy English, in that we need to deal with the facts. I have three questions but I want to make three observations first. The Taoiseach said over the weekend that our levels of homelessness are low when compared to our peers. That is a fact. When he was pressed by the journalist at the press event, he referenced the 2017 OECD report. The 2017 OECD...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Review of Estimates for Public Services 2017: Vote 34 - Housing, Planning and Local Government (15 Nov 2017)

Eoin Ó Broin: I am going to do that, and I will do it within my time. I have never said that we have a higher rate of homelessness than anywhere else. In fact, I no one in the committee has ever said that. However, we have an unacceptably high level. In fact, there is evidence to suggest that it is higher than our immediate peers, as Eoin O'Sullivan has written about recently. I want to put that on...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Review of Estimates for Public Services 2017: Vote 34 - Housing, Planning and Local Government (15 Nov 2017)

Eoin Ó Broin: Of the 5,050 units, have many have been delivered so far this year? I am very glad the Minister is looking to Scotland. He is right that the child homelessness rate is higher there, but the children are in emergency accommodation for only a quarter of the time. The average period is 24 weeks. Here it is about two years. It would be more than welcome if the Minister learned from Scotland...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Review of Estimates for Public Services 2017: Vote 34 - Housing, Planning and Local Government (15 Nov 2017)

Eoin Ó Broin: Does the change to the funding model for Irish Water in any way affect its capital investment programme as outlined in the business plan for next year and the years leading up to 2021? Last year €140 million was earmarked for the completion of phase one and the start of phase two of the metering programme. I understand it has been re-profiled in the overall capital spend, but Irish...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Review of Estimates for Public Services 2017: Vote 34 - Housing, Planning and Local Government (15 Nov 2017)

Eoin Ó Broin: Does the Minister miss the Deputy?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Review of Estimates for Public Services 2017: Vote 34 - Housing, Planning and Local Government (15 Nov 2017)

Eoin Ó Broin: Is that €1 billion over a period of years?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Review of Estimates for Public Services 2017: Vote 34 - Housing, Planning and Local Government (15 Nov 2017)

Eoin Ó Broin: So it will be a saving from 2018 or 2019 to 2021.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Review of Estimates for Public Services 2017: Vote 34 - Housing, Planning and Local Government (15 Nov 2017)

Eoin Ó Broin: Is the Minister saying that if the proposals are brought forward, there will be a specific saving between 2019 and 2021? That is not the €1 billion.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Review of Estimates for Public Services 2017: Vote 34 - Housing, Planning and Local Government (15 Nov 2017)

Eoin Ó Broin: What is the additional bit that Irish Water and the Department is hoping to make if the SLAs are renegotiated?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Review of Estimates for Public Services 2017: Vote 34 - Housing, Planning and Local Government (15 Nov 2017)

Eoin Ó Broin: So that would be €70 million for 2019, 2020 and 2021.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Review of Estimates for Public Services 2017: Vote 34 - Housing, Planning and Local Government (15 Nov 2017)

Eoin Ó Broin: Under programme C, one of the big issues, and it relates to the conversation we have just had on programme A, is funding for staff in housing departments, in terms of general housing staff and private sector inspections. Please identify the increase, if any, for next year and whether additional money was used this year to increase the number of staff in the Department and, specifically, for...

Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Estimates for Public Services 2017
Vote 34 - Housing, Planning and Local Government (Revised) (15 Nov 2017)

Eoin Ó Broin: I thank the Minister. I know it is too late to change this but some of us have a concern that the transfer of the final bits of community out of his Department, particularly those that relate to community development functions within urban local authority areas, could have a detrimental impact on the delivery of those services. I am aware that ultimately, that is not a decision for the...

Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Estimates for Public Services 2017
Vote 34 - Housing, Planning and Local Government (Revised) (15 Nov 2017)

Eoin Ó Broin: I thank the Minister for his comment on the transfer of the community function. Although we will not have responsibility for the new Department there may be a role for this committee to invite in the Minister, Deputy Ring, maybe once a year or so, to discuss the management of those elements. The only reason I am saying this is since the restructuring of the old community development...

Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Estimates for Public Services 2017
Vote 34 - Housing, Planning and Local Government (Revised) (15 Nov 2017)

Eoin Ó Broin: For the information of committee members, I sent a request to the Chairman this morning, requesting that we bring in Irish Water, the unions and other interested parties, including the Department of Housing, Planning and Local Government in January or February to discuss the single utility proposals because I think it would be useful for us to do it at that stage and it would allow members an...

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Local Authority Housing Data (15 Nov 2017)

Eoin Ó Broin: 229. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government further to Parliamentary Question No. 1358 of 7 November 2017, the reason for the discrepancy in the figures for local authority voids contained in the NOAC report 12 of May 2017, table F, pp 60/61, and the figures for long-term voids returned to stock funded by his Department; the way in which NOAC reported 4,202 voids of...

Order of Business (14 Nov 2017)

Eoin Ó Broin: Page 29 of the programme for Government promises to ensure that an appropriate balance is struck between the rights and interests of landlords and tenants. The amendments to the Residential Tenancies Act, which were rushed through the House last December, introduced a loophole that, as the Taoiseach knows, allows landlords to issue notices to quit where they are undertaking substantial...