Results 13,721-13,740 of 25,880 for speaker:Darragh O'Brien

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Departmental Schemes (22 Jun 2021)

Darragh O'Brien: As of 31 March 2021, there were 17,608 active tenancies supported under the Rental Accommodation Scheme (RAS). Details on the number of RAS tenancies is available on my Department's website, titled 'RAS Tenancies 2021 Quarterly Statistics', at the following link: gov.ie - Overall social housing provision (www.gov.ie)

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Departmental Funding (22 Jun 2021)

Darragh O'Brien: The Strategy for the Rental Sector sets out a series of measures to be introduced to ensure the quality of private rental accommodation by strengthening the applicable standards and improving the inspection and enforcement systems. The Strategy recognises the need for additional resources to be provided to local authorities to aid increased inspections of properties and ensure greater...

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Departmental Schemes (22 Jun 2021)

Darragh O'Brien: Despite the challenges faced throughout 2020 and into 2021 due to the Covid emergency measures, local authorities and the Housing Assistance Payment Shared Service Centre (HAP SSC) have continued to provide a critical service to all HAP customers. Measures that were required to be taken in the context of Covid-19 did, however, have an impact on processing times for HAP applications. Data on...

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Defective Building Materials (22 Jun 2021)

Darragh O'Brien: The Dwellings Damaged by the Use of Defective Concrete Blocks in Construction (Remediation) (Financial Assistance) Regulations 2020 provide for a grant scheme of financial assistance to support affected homeowners in the counties of Donegal and Mayo only, to carry out the necessary remediation works to dwellings that have been damaged due to the use of defective concrete...

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Departmental Correspondence (22 Jun 2021)

Darragh O'Brien: The correspondence referred to in the question was received by my office on 14 June 2021 and a response will issue at the shortly. The Residential Tenancies Board (RTB) was established as an independent statutory body under the Residential Tenancies Acts 2004-2021 to operate a national tenancy registration system and to resolve disputes between landlords and tenants. A...

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Housing Provision (22 Jun 2021)

Darragh O'Brien: This Government is absolutely focused on ensuring that affordable, quality housing solutions are available to everyone in Irish society and this is reflected in the Programme for Government, "Our Shared Future". The Programme commits to putting affordability at the heart of the housing system through the progression of State-backed affordable housing. This commitment is reflected in Budget...

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Defective Building Materials (22 Jun 2021)

Darragh O'Brien: The Dwellings Damaged by the Use of Defective Concrete Blocks in Construction (Remediation) (Financial Assistance) Regulations 2020 provide for a grant scheme of financial assistance to support affected homeowners in the counties of Donegal and Mayo only, to carry out the necessary remediation works to dwellings that have been damaged due to the use of defective concrete...

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Departmental Schemes (22 Jun 2021)

Darragh O'Brien: The Housing Assistance Payment (HAP) is a flexible and immediate housing support that is available to all eligible households throughout the State. At end Q1 2021 there were nearly 61,300 households in receipt of HAP and over 33,900 separate landlords and agents providing accommodation to households supported by the scheme. In respect of the provision of HAP funding, Limerick City and County...

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Legislative Measures (22 Jun 2021)

Darragh O'Brien: The Local Government (Charges) Act 2009, as amended by the Local Government (Household Charge) Act 2011, provides the legislative basis for the non-principal private residence (NPPR) charge.  The NPPR charge, which has since been discontinued, applied in the years 2009 to 2013 to any residential property in which the owner did not reside as their normal place of residence.  The...

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Housing Provision (22 Jun 2021)

Darragh O'Brien: Approved Housing Bodies (AHBs) are making an important contribution to social housing delivery, as envisaged under current Government policy.  My Department operates a number of funding programmes that assist local authorities to work in partnership with AHBs to construct, purchase and lease new homes and make them available for social housing. One such programme, that AHBs progress...

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Departmental Schemes (22 Jun 2021)

Darragh O'Brien: The Tenant (Incremental) Purchase Scheme came into operation on 1 January 2016.  The Scheme is open to eligible tenants, including joint tenants, of local authority houses that are available for sale under the Scheme. To be eligible, tenants must meet certain criteria, including having a minimum reckonable income of €15,000 per annum and having been in receipt of social housing...

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Wastewater Treatment (22 Jun 2021)

Darragh O'Brien: I propose to take Questions Nos. 305 and 306 together. Developer provided water services infrastructure, or DPI, refers to stand alone water services Infrastructure, such as wells, water treatment plants and wastewater treatment plants and associated pumping stations, that have been provided by developers as part of housing developments and that are not connected to the public water and...

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Defective Building Materials (22 Jun 2021)

Darragh O'Brien: The Dwellings Damaged by the Use of Defective Concrete Blocks in Construction (Remediation) (Financial Assistance) Regulations 2020 provide for a grant scheme of financial assistance to support affected homeowners in the counties of Donegal and Mayo, to carry out the necessary remediation works to dwellings that have been damaged due to the use of defective concrete blocks. The...

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Defective Building Materials (22 Jun 2021)

Darragh O'Brien: I propose to take Questions Nos. 308, 309 and 310 together. The Pyrite Resolution Act 2013 provides the statutory framework for the establishment of the Pyrite Resolution Board and for the making of a pyrite remediation scheme to be implemented by the Board with support from the Housing Agency. The provisions of the Act apply only to dwellings affected by significant damage...

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Departmental Funding (22 Jun 2021)

Darragh O'Brien: The Local Infrastructure Housing Activation Fund (LIHAF) was designed to support housing supply by relieving critical infrastructure blockages. 30 projects were approved with an overall budget of €195.7m, €146.8m Exchequer funded and the remainder funded by local authorities. Details of the approvals by local authority area, budget allocation, project description and projected...

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Vacant Properties (22 Jun 2021)

Darragh O'Brien: My Department is committed to ensuring that existing housing stock is utilised to its fullest extent including providing a targeted, effective and co-ordinated approach to identifying and tackling vacancy across Ireland.  There are currently a range of measures to assist in ensuring that our existing housing stock is used to the greatest extent possible. My Department published the...

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: State Bodies (22 Jun 2021)

Darragh O'Brien: The requested information is not available in my Department.  However, it may be obtained by contacting the dedicated e-mail addresses for members of the Oireachtas in respect of the State bodies under the aegis of my Department, as set out in tabular form below. State Body Contact E-mail Address An Bord Pleanála ...

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Planning Issues (22 Jun 2021)

Darragh O'Brien: Provision is made under section 39 (2) of the Planning and Development Act 2000, as amended (the Act), which enables a planning authority and An Bord Pleanála to attach a condition to a grant of planning permission for a structure which is to be used as a dwelling, specifying that such use may be restricted to use by persons of a particular class or description and that provision to that...

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Departmental Schemes (22 Jun 2021)

Darragh O'Brien: As the Deputy will appreciate, the Community Monuments Fund is a very popular scheme with demand far outweighing the level of funding available and, therefore, only a proportion of the applications received can be funded.  A robust assessment was carried out of all 166 applications received under the scheme for 2021.  Applications which failed to meet the minimum requirements...

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Departmental Budgets (22 Jun 2021)

Darragh O'Brien: The capital expenditure provision for my Department in 2021 as set out in the Revised Estimates for Public Services 2021 published by the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform (DPER) and available at https://www.per.gov.ie/en/rev/ is €2,762m.  The breakdown of this capital allocation by Programme is set out below: PROGRAMME 2021...