Results 15,321-15,340 of 26,971 for speaker:Darragh O'Brien

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Homeless Persons Supports (11 May 2021)

Darragh O'Brien: My Department's role in relation to homelessness involves the provision of a national framework of policy, legislation and funding to underpin the role of housing authorities in addressing homelessness at local level. Statutory responsibility in relation to the provision of homeless services rests with individual housing authorities. Section 10 of the Housing Act 1988 sets out the purposes...

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Local Authorities (11 May 2021)

Darragh O'Brien: Management and maintenance of the local authority housing stock is very important and local authorities have a legal obligation to ensure that all of their tenanted properties are compliant with the provisions of the Housing (Standards for Rented Houses) Regulations, 2019. Local authority officials and elected members have a very important role to play in this regard by making adequate...

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Departmental Staff (11 May 2021)

Darragh O'Brien: There were 1,255 staff serving in my Department at the end of December 2020. Their total gross salary for the year was €69.976m.

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Departmental Contracts (11 May 2021)

Darragh O'Brien: My Department does not employ persons or firms to deal with public relations. A number of Departmental staff work on external communications to ensure my Department's work is communicated to the public, media, stakeholders and others. My Department did not incur any expenditure on third party public relations advice or communications advice since January 2020 to date. Procurement of external...

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Real Estate Investment Trusts (11 May 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. The Property Registration Authority, which was established as an independent statutory body under the...

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Real Estate Investment Trusts (11 May 2021)

Darragh O'Brien: I propose to take Questions Nos. 355 and 356 together. The Social Housing Leasing Programme supports the delivery of social housing by providing financial support to local authorities for the long term leasing of houses and apartments. Details of the owner involved in each social housing leasing project are not held by my Department. These details, and details of the total funding paid to...

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Housing Policy (11 May 2021)

Darragh O'Brien: Social housing construction projects (as with all publicly funded construction projects), must be competitively tendered, in accordance with the public procurement guidelines, to ensure transparency as well as value for money for the tax-payer and must comply with the Government’s Capital Works Management Framework (CWMF). The CWMF is for use by contracting authorities involved in the...

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Local Authorities (11 May 2021)

Darragh O'Brien: Residential developments consisting of two or more dwellings that have been granted planning permission under the Planning and Development Act, 2000, as amended, are normally eligible for taking-in-charge. The taking-in-charge of residential estates by local authorities, is provided for under section 180 of the Act. The taking-in-charge of estates is a reserved function of the elected members...

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Housing Policy (11 May 2021)

Darragh O'Brien: The minimum standards for rental accommodation are prescribed in the Housing (Standards for Rented Houses) Regulations 2019. All landlords have a legal obligation to ensure that their rented properties comply with these Regulations. Responsibility for enforcement of the Regulations rests with the relevant local authority. Local authorities report to my Department on numbers of overall...

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Departmental Projects (11 May 2021)

Darragh O'Brien: The current membership of the Bathing Water Expert Group (BWEG) includes representatives of the following organisations: - Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage (Chair) - Health Service Executive - Environmental Protection Agency - Coastwatch - An Taisce - Irish Water - Water Safety Ireland - Local Authorities (represented by Galway County Council and Dublin City Council) In...

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Irish Water (11 May 2021)

Darragh O'Brien: The information requested is not available in my Department. Irish Water is responsible for its own arrangements in relation to insurance cover and handling claims for damages relating to its functions and activities. Irish Water has established a dedicated team to deal with representations and queries from public representatives. The team can be contacted via email to...

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Housing Issues (11 May 2021)

Darragh O'Brien: As housing authorities, local authorities are responsible for the identification of the social housing need in their area. It is a matter for Dun-Laoghaire Rathdown County Council to determine the most appropriate response to the need for social housing supports in their area and to make the necessary application (which could include programmes involving approved housing bodies) to my...

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Legislative Measures (11 May 2021)

Darragh O'Brien: I propose to take Questions Nos. 364, 365, 366 and 367 together. The Land Development Agency Bill 2021 was recently published and has concluded Second Stage in Dáil Éireann. Section 14 of the Bill specifically provides for the LDA to deliver services to local authorities including to deliver social and affordable housing on local authority lands. The majority of such lands...

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Island Communities (6 May 2021)

Darragh O'Brien: The responsibility to develop social housing within their operational areas, including offshore islands, rests with the individual local authorities, working in partnership with Approved Housing Bodies. Targets are provided to each local authority for social housing delivery and it is a matter for the authority to decide on locations for new social housing based on their housing need....

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Home Loan Scheme (6 May 2021)

Darragh O'Brien: The Housing Agency provides a central support service which assesses applications for the Rebuilding Ireland Home Loan on behalf of local authorities and makes recommendations to the authorities to approve or refuse applications. Each local authority must have in place a credit committee and it is a matter for the committee to make the decision on applications for loans, in accordance with...

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Housing Policy (6 May 2021)

Darragh O'Brien: This Government is 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 commits us to expanding the Serviced Sites Fund (SSF) and in this regard I have recently confirmed that a review of the funds operation is being undertaken. Currently, the maximum...

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Land Development Agency (6 May 2021)

Darragh O'Brien: Dublin City Council are currently working on progressing a mixed tenure development at Emmet Road (formally known as St. Michael's estate). In June of 2020 my Department provided Stage 1 Approval-in-Principle for the development of 109 social housing units on this mixed tenure site. My Department has not been engaged in any discussions or process regarding the transfer of the land to the...

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Local Authority Housing (6 May 2021)

Darragh O'Brien: Local authorities are responsible for the provision of social housing in their areas, and, as such, decide on the number and specific types of dwellings to provide in their developments. Targets are not set for local authorities in respect of the numbers of new dwellings to be provided for older persons in each development. Local authorities would instead consider the housing need as per...

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Local Authority Housing (6 May 2021)

Darragh O'Brien: Increasing the supply of public, social and affordable homes is priority of this Government. The Programme for Government includes a commitment to deliver 50,000 new social homes with a focus on new build homes. This commitment was underpinned by investment of €3.3bn towards housing programmes in Budget 2021. Subject to the impact of COVID-19, this investment will fund delivery of...

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: House Prices (6 May 2021)

Darragh O'Brien: I propose to take Questions Nos. 68 and 74 together. The purchase prices of homes are influenced by a significant range of market factors, including income, location, demand, supply, building size, and specification etc. As affordability is, broadly speaking, a factor of household income, there is no single or universally applicable price-point which denotes affordability. The CSO...