Results 13,921-13,940 of 25,880 for speaker:Darragh O'Brien

Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Land Development Agency Bill 2021: Committee Stage (Resumed) (15 Jun 2021)

Darragh O'Brien: I move amendment No. 178: In page 38, line 12, to delete "sections 66and 67" and substitute "section 66".

Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Land Development Agency Bill 2021: Committee Stage (Resumed) (15 Jun 2021)

Darragh O'Brien: I move amendment No. 181: In page 38, line 25, to delete “or”.

Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Land Development Agency Bill 2021: Committee Stage (Resumed) (15 Jun 2021)

Darragh O'Brien: I move amendment No. 182: In page 38, line 27, to delete “body.” and substitute the following: “body, or (c) where the transfer relates to relevant public land specified in Column (1) of Schedule 3*, the Schedule 1 public body specified in Column (2) of that Schedule opposite the relevant public land so specified.”.

Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Land Development Agency Bill 2021: Committee Stage (Resumed) (15 Jun 2021)

Darragh O'Brien: I move amendment No. 184: In page 39, between lines 7 and 8, to insert the following: “Disposal of land by Agency or subsidiary DAC 55.(1)Subject to subsection (6), the Agency may, with the consent of the Minister having consulted with the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform, dispose of land owned by the Agency. (2) The power conferred on the Agency by subsection (1) may...

Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Land Development Agency Bill 2021: Committee Stage (Resumed) (15 Jun 2021)

Darragh O'Brien: I thank colleagues for tabling the amendments. On a general point, it is important to remember that the vast majority of both social and affordable homes will continue to be delivered by local authorities. That is why we are tooling them up to do that. That is why we gave them the largest housing budget in the history of the State. We will continue to drive that on by giving them...

Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Land Development Agency Bill 2021: Committee Stage (Resumed) (15 Jun 2021)

Darragh O'Brien: A number of points have been made. We had a clear example there of some of the best in sound bite politics and misrepresentations of the real situation. That is just a fact. Throwing out phrases like "dirty little secret" and that type of stuff is not correct, at the end of the day. I reiterate that where local authorities have decided to dispose of land, they, like other bodies,...

Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Land Development Agency Bill 2021: Committee Stage (Resumed) (15 Jun 2021)

Darragh O'Brien: I was just stating the facts.

Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Land Development Agency Bill 2021: Committee Stage (Resumed) (15 Jun 2021)

Darragh O'Brien: That is agreed.

Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Land Development Agency Bill 2021: Committee Stage (Resumed) (15 Jun 2021)

Darragh O'Brien: I would need to be able to respond to it.

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Water Services (3 Jun 2021)

Darragh O'Brien: My Department provides financial support to eligible homeowners towards the remediation, repair, or upgrading works to, or replacement of, domestic waste water treatment systems where an Advisory Notice has issued on foot of an inspection under the EPA’s National Inspection Plan.  Additionally, to support the attainment of water quality objectives in “prioritised areas for...

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Defective Building Materials (3 Jun 2021)

Darragh O'Brien: The local authority has responsibility for the detailed administration of the Defective Concrete Blocks Grant scheme. This includes the assessment of applications for eligibility and payment of grants to successful applicants under the specific remediation option approved. While an engineer's report informs a local authority's consideration and assessment...

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Defective Building Materials (3 Jun 2021)

Darragh O'Brien: I met with persons and representatives of persons, whose properties have been affected by the use of defective concrete blocks in County Donegal, on three occasions. The first was at the launch of the Defective Concrete Blocks Grant scheme, which took place in Buncrana on 6 August 2020. The second meeting was held virtually on 4 February 2021. The third meeting...

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Direct Provision System (3 Jun 2021)

Darragh O'Brien: The Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth (D/CEDIY) recently published a White Paper on International Protection. Policy in this area and the management of the work programme is a matter for that Department. The authorities and agencies under my Department's remit will support D/CEDIY as appropriate in implementation of the...

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Housing Schemes (3 Jun 2021)

Darragh O'Brien: My Department provides funding to local authorities in respect of the Housing Adaptation Grants for Older People and People with a Disability, to assist eligible people in private houses to make their accommodation more suitable for their needs.  The suite of grants include the Housing Adaptation Grant for People with a Disability (max grant €30,000), the Mobility Aids Grant (max...

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Defective Building Materials (3 Jun 2021)

Darragh O'Brien: The Programme for Government sets out a number of commitments in respect of the important policy area of building defects and provides for an examination of defects in housing, having regard to the recommendations of the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing report, "Safe as Houses". The terms of reference of the working group to examine defects in housing does not include a review of the...

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Real Estate Investment Trusts (3 Jun 2021)

Darragh O'Brien: My Department does not collect data in relation to the ownership of individual housing units purchased and sold in the housing market. I understand that data published by market commentators indicates that approximately 15,500 units were owned by investment trusts at the end of 2020.

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Housing Schemes (3 Jun 2021)

Darragh O'Brien: Both the Rebuilding Ireland Home Loan website and call centre are managed by the Housing Agency which has indicated that the chat function is available.  However the Agency has advised that under GDPR the user must activate the Zendesk permissions offered in order to initiate the chat function. Visitors to the site can update their preferences should they wish to avail of...

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Rental Sector (3 Jun 2021)

Darragh O'Brien: The Emergency Measures in the Public Interest (Covid-19) Act 2020 provided that a rent increase was not permitted to take effect during the relevant emergency period from 27 March 2020 to 1 August 2020. From 1 August 2020, the blanket ban on rent increases inside or outside of a Rent Pressure Zone (RPZ) was lifted. Despite the lifting of the ban, the standardised average rent rose by just...

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Housing Schemes (3 Jun 2021)

Darragh O'Brien: In order for a household to qualify for the Housing Assistance Payment (HAP), they must first be assessed as eligible for social housing support by their local authority. Any household assessed as eligible for social housing is immediately eligible for HAP. Legislation provides that HAP is considered to be a form of social housing support and households in receipt of HAP are therefore, not...

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Fire Safety (2 Jun 2021)

Darragh O'Brien: Statutory responsibility for mitigation and dealing with fire emergencies in wildland areas and areas of ecological sensitivity are distributed appropriately across a range of Government Departments and Agencies. The Inter-Agency group referred to was established and chaired by the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine. The Group was tasked with exploring issues including the...