Results 14,421-14,440 of 25,979 for speaker:Darragh O'Brien

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Water Pollution (5 May 2021)

Darragh O'Brien: With effect from 1 January 2014, Irish Water has statutory responsibility for all aspects of water services planning, delivery and operation at national, regional and local levels for public water services, including the delivery of water services capital infrastructure, encompassing the management of urban waste water collection and treatment infrastructure. All discharges to the aquatic...

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: National Parks (5 May 2021)

Darragh O'Brien: The fires in Killarney National Park at the weekend before last were a tragedy. The staff in the National Parks and Wildlife Service of my Department, the Air Corps, The Civil Defence Fire Service, Kerry Water Rescue, both Executive and Celtic Helicopter companies and volunteers put their lives on the line to quench these flames, and while there were no casualties this time, the...

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Land Issues (5 May 2021)

Darragh O'Brien: I am informed by the Property Registration Authority (PRA) that this matter was investigated by it under reference S2019LR007138G and that a letter issued to the applicant on 15 August 2019 indicating that the registered boundaries of Folio KY63345F are in accordance with the documents lodged for registration under Instrument No. D2009LR046451C. I am further informed that the PRA...

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Radon Gas Levels (5 May 2021)

Darragh O'Brien: The Housing (Standards for Rented Houses) Regulations 2019 set a minimum standard for decent, safe and secure rental accommodation. These Regulations also focus on tenant safety and include measures covering heating appliances, carbon monoxide and window safety. With very limited exemptions, these apply to social housing as well as private rented residential accommodation. All landlords have...

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Planning Issues (5 May 2021)

Darragh O'Brien: Co-living falls under the shared accommodation arrangements introduced as part of the strategic housing development (SHD) process in the Planning and Development (Housing) and Residential Tenancies Act 2016 (the Act). In this regard, planning applications for shared accommodation developments of 200 bed spaces or more are made directly to An Bord Pleanála (the Board) for...

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Home Loan Scheme (5 May 2021)

Darragh O'Brien: Allocations for new lending approvals under the Rebuilding Ireland Home Loan (RIHL) scheme are allocated each year and communicated to all 31 local authorities. For clarity, this allocation sets out the maximum amount of RIHL loans that a local authority can approve for a given year. The loans stemming from these approvals can be drawn down in the year of allocation or in a subsequent year....

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Defective Building Materials (5 May 2021)

Darragh O'Brien: My Department received correspondence from Clare County Council in October 2020, requesting the extension of the Defective Concrete Blocks Grant to County Clare. A comprehensive reply was subsequently issued to the Council in November 2020. My Department informed the Council that before any extension of the scheme can be considered the same rigorous analysis as that put in place prior...

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Rental Sector (5 May 2021)

Darragh O'Brien: The Planning and Development and Residential Tenancies (Amendment) Act 2016 introduced the Rent Predictability Measure to moderate rent increases in those parts of the country where rents are highest and rising fastest, resulting in great difficulty for households finding affordable accommodation. In these areas, called Rent Pressure Zones (RPZ), rents can only increase by a maximum of 4% per...

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Departmental Investigations (5 May 2021)

Darragh O'Brien: No member of my Department has had access to files and/or email restricted and/or revoked as part of a disciplinary process or preceding or following a disciplinary process from 1 January 2018 to date in 2021.

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Home Loan Scheme (5 May 2021)

Darragh O'Brien: The Rebuilding Ireland Home Loan Scheme is designed to enable credit worthy first-time buyers to access sustainable mortgage lending to purchase new or second-hand properties. The Rebuilding Ireland Home Loan provides first-time buyers with access to mortgage finance that they may not otherwise have been able to afford at a higher interest rate. More details of this are set out in the FAQ's...

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Property Registration (5 May 2021)

Darragh O'Brien: The Property Registration Authority (PRA) provides a service for Oireachtas members to submit their queries concerning the current status of Land Registry and Registry of Deeds applications directly to a dedicated e mail address (reps@prai.ie). However, I am informed that pursuant to the General Data Protection Regulation, the PRA is somewhat constrained in relation to the level of detail...

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Social and Affordable Housing (5 May 2021)

Darragh O'Brien: From the outset, I wish to advise the Deputy that Irish Water has statutory responsibility for all aspects of water services planning, delivery and operation at national, regional and local levels in accordance with Section 7 of the Water Services (No. 2) Act 2013. This includes water and waste water services connections to new housing developments. I have no function in relation to these...

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Planning Investigations (5 May 2021)

Darragh O'Brien: I am considering the report, entitled 'A Review Into Certain Planning Matters in Respect of Donegal County Council', by Mr. Rory Mulcahy S.C., and will bring this matter to Government for consideration in due course. In this regard, the decisions of the Commissioner for Environmental Information (CEI/18/0019) of 13 February 2019 and the Information Commissioner (OIC-59426-Q8D7T8) of 27...

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Lease Agreements (5 May 2021)

Darragh O'Brien: Details of the number of homes delivered under the Social Housing Leasing Programme in 2020 are set out in Table 1 below. Leasing delivery data for Q1 2021 is being collated at present and will be published on my Department's website as soon as that process is finalised. The total expenditure for leasing in 2020, together with the average cost of a new unit in 2020, is set out in Table 2...

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Lease Agreements (5 May 2021)

Darragh O'Brien: A spending review and analysis of capital and current expenditure on housing supports has been carried out by the Irish Government Economic & Evaluation Service (IGEES) staff within the Department of Finance and Public Expenditure and Reform, published in July 2018. This report focuses on the comparative analysis of delivery streams particularly related to cost effectiveness,...

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Rental Sector (5 May 2021)

Darragh O'Brien: 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 facilitate the resolution of disputes between landlords and tenants. My Department does not collect the data sought, however the Clerk of the Dáil requested that arrangements be put in place...

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Housing Issues (5 May 2021)

Darragh O'Brien: I have serious concerns of instances, recently reported, where investors are inappropriately purchasing entire completed houses estates, preventing their sale to families and first time buyers. Institutional Investors are regulated by the Department of Finance. The issue of sale and of purchase of land or housing are matters for the Minister for Justice. I am working with my Government...

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Housing Policy (5 May 2021)

Darragh O'Brien: Ireland’s underlying housing affordability challenges are clearly associated with an imbalance between supply and demand. This Government is absolutely committed to 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 for Government makes commitments to...

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Housing Policy (5 May 2021)

Darragh O'Brien: Increasing the supply of public, social and affordable homes is priority for my Department. In January, the enhanced Level 5 restrictions introduced by Government involved most residential construction being halted from 8 January until 12 April. Certain essential social housing projects, which were scheduled for completion by 30 April were allowed to continue. This has ensured that some...

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Tenant Purchase Scheme (5 May 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 support...