Results 13,601-13,620 of 15,009 for speaker:Eoin Ó Broin

Other Questions: Social and Affordable Housing Eligibility (13 Jul 2017)

Eoin Ó Broin: I urge the Minister to consider two other issues in the review. The first is that, traditionally, local authorities were able to apply a certain level of flexibility for households that were just above the income threshold at their existing limits. In the housing needs assessment guidance note from the Department that was issued to local authorities last year, they were told to no longer...

Other Questions: Approved Housing Bodies (13 Jul 2017)

Eoin Ó Broin: I fully support all of those sentiments. In respect of the level of risk that they will increasingly carry, there is a need to ensure there is a good solid, off-balance sheet vehicle through which credit union or private finance can deliver increased approved housing body units. That would be one mechanism to protect them against some of that risk. Given the difficulties that the approved...

Other Questions: Approved Housing Bodies (13 Jul 2017)

Eoin Ó Broin: 14. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government the status of the ongoing discussions within his Department and the ABH sector on the forthcoming Housing (Regulation of Approved Housing Bodies) Bill 2015. [33144/17]

Other Questions: Approved Housing Bodies (13 Jul 2017)

Eoin Ó Broin: I am looking for an update on the ongoing discussions between Department officials and the approved housing bodies in terms of the forthcoming regulations for the future of the approved housing body sector.

Other Questions: Approved Housing Bodies (13 Jul 2017)

Eoin Ó Broin: This is legislation which most in this House will welcome, and we will certainly collaborate with the Minister to ensure the regulation is fit for purpose. There are three concerns I want to flag at this stage. One is the fact there is very significant variance in the size and capacity of the approved housing bodies in the sector. While greater regulation is going to be needed for the tier...

Other Questions: Voluntary Housing Sector (13 Jul 2017)

Eoin Ó Broin: Deputy Smith has raised a very important point. It makes no sense that there are two rental arrangements for the approved housing body sector. The case raised by Deputy Smith arose because capital assistance scheme funding has more flexibility than capital advance leasing facility funding. There should only be one system of rental arrangements in this sector. I would like to mention...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Emergency Accommodation Provision (13 Jul 2017)

Eoin Ó Broin: 4. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government the measures he will take to ensure that all emergency homeless accommodation, including family hubs, funded by his Department will meet the highest possible standards. [33572/17]

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Emergency Accommodation Provision (13 Jul 2017)

Eoin Ó Broin: In the two reports on family emergency accommodations and hubs published yesterday, one by the Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission and the other by two academics from Maynooth University funded by the European Union, one of their central recommendations was the need for an independent inspection regime for emergency accommodation, in particular for families. In order to ensure the...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Emergency Accommodation Provision (13 Jul 2017)

Eoin Ó Broin: During the past two years as the family homelessness crisis has spiralled out of control, many of us have had direct experience of very poor emergency accommodation conditions in which families are living. They may not be the norm and there are very many good quality, well run and well maintained facilities, but, for example, I refer to rooms with dampness and blood and urine stained...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Emergency Accommodation Provision (13 Jul 2017)

Eoin Ó Broin: I am not questioning or do not doubt any of that, although in addition to people, including ourselves, seeing hubs being constructed, we should also be taking to the families who are currently living in hubs. They would give a much more insightful explanation of the difficulties that families experience, notwithstanding the improvements from hotel and bed and breakfast accommodation to hubs,...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Housing Provision (13 Jul 2017)

Eoin Ó Broin: I thank the Minister. One of the questions I put to departmental officials in the committee two weeks ago was whether it would be possible for a development to secure LIHAF funding where there would be no affordability dividend in that development. The official said it could be possible. When we raised it with the former Minister for Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government,...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Housing Provision (13 Jul 2017)

Eoin Ó Broin: The problem is that supply in itself will not automatically guarantee affordability. I go back to the questions Deputy Cowen raised. Every time anybody in this House asks about affordable rental or affordable purchase, the answer is, "We're looking at models". The truth is that the Government does not have any models. I understand one project is about to be developed involving the Housing...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Housing Provision (13 Jul 2017)

Eoin Ó Broin: 2. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government his plans to ensure that no LIHAF funding will be released to developers that have not provided for a proportion of the units in their development to be sold at an affordable price that is less than €300,000 in Dublin and at appropriate levels elsewhere. [33571/17]

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Housing Provision (13 Jul 2017)

Eoin Ó Broin: I am looking for a very specific update on the roll-out of the local infrastructure housing activation fund and, in particular, what the affordability return for taxpayer money will be in specific developments. Will the Government and Department keep to the original proposal from last August that at least 40% of the units in each of these developments should come in at 10% below market price...

Planning and Development (Amendment) (No. 2) Bill 2017: Committee and Remaining Stages (13 Jul 2017)

Eoin Ó Broin: I move amendment No. 12: In page 4, between lines 5 and 6, to insert the following:“(V) is satisfied that—(A) the planning authority has been provided with established evidence by the applicant that the development can and will be completed within a reasonable time, (B) the development would not be inconsistent with the proper planning and sustainable development of the area...

Planning and Development (Amendment) (No. 2) Bill 2017: Committee and Remaining Stages (13 Jul 2017)

Eoin Ó Broin: I move amendment No. 15:In page 4, between lines 19 and 20, to insert the following:“(VI) is satisfied that the extension will not result in delaying the completion of the development.’.”.”.

Planning and Development (Amendment) (No. 2) Bill 2017: Committee and Remaining Stages (13 Jul 2017)

Eoin Ó Broin: I move amendment No. 16:In page 4, between lines 19 and 20, to insert the following:“(1B) The Planning and Development Act 2000 is amended in paragraph (aa) of section 42(1), inserted by section 28(1)(a)(iii) of the Planning and Development (Housing) and Residential Tenancies Act 2016, by the insertion of the following after “granted,”:‘and where the planning...

Planning and Development (Amendment) (No. 2) Bill 2017: Committee and Remaining Stages (13 Jul 2017)

Eoin Ó Broin: When the Minister speaks about a commitment that was given at the launch of Rebuilding Ireland, is he talking about a retrospective application of an extension to a permission that has actually already expired and where building work had stopped? That is what I took from what the Minister said, which is not what this Bill, as far as we have been discussing it up until now, is proposing to...

Planning and Development (Amendment) (No. 2) Bill 2017: Committee and Remaining Stages (13 Jul 2017)

Eoin Ó Broin: I move amendment No. 11:In page 4, line 5, after “and” to insert “is under active construction but cannot reasonably be completed, and”. All three amendments are in my name so I will speak to them together. Regarding amendments Nos. 12 and 15, I will not repeat the arguments. It is the same set of arguments we have discussed substantively on the other amendments....

Planning and Development (Amendment) (No. 2) Bill 2017: Committee and Remaining Stages (13 Jul 2017)

Eoin Ó Broin: I will speak to amendments Nos. 10 and 16. The argument is similar to the one made on earlier amendments to the effect that ten years is a long time. There may have been significant changes in the period following the original decision as to whether an EIA was required. It is not to say that an EIA or AA will be required in all circumstances but it will give the local planning authority...