Results 15,401-15,420 of 26,971 for speaker:Darragh O'Brien

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

Darragh O'Brien: My Department is focused on ensuring that existing housing stock is utilised to its fullest extent including a targeted, effective and co-ordinated approach to identifying and tackling vacancy across Ireland. The National Vacant Housing Reuse Strategy was published in 2018 and contains a range of objectives and key actions to be pursued in partnership with stakeholders and agencies across the...

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

Darragh O'Brien: The Monthly Homeless Report for March and the Homeless Quarterly Progress Report for the first quarter of 2021 were published by my Department on Friday 30 March. The number of individuals presenting to homeless services and the number of people accessing emergency accommodation continued to decline in the first quarter of 2021, following a trend first established in fourth quarter of 2019....

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Covid-19 Pandemic (5 May 2021)

Darragh O'Brien: With a view to supplementing the Outdoor Dining Enhancement Grant Scheme which was recently announced by my colleague, the Minister for Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media , and further to the expected easing of Covid-19 restrictions over the coming months, I presented a package of amending planning regulations to the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Local Government and...

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

Darragh O'Brien: The regulations for the Defective Concrete Blocks Grant scheme came in to operation on 31 January 2020. 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...

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...

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Homeless Persons Supports (5 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: Vacant Properties (5 May 2021)

Darragh O'Brien: The management and maintenance of local authority housing stock, including pre-letting repairs to vacant properties, the implementation of a planned maintenance programme and carrying out of responsive repairs, are matters for each individual local authority under Section 58 of the Housing Act 1966. Since 2014, Exchequer funding has also been provided through my Department's Voids...

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

Darragh O'Brien: 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". I am currently progressing two affordable purchase schemes. The fisrt of these entails the delivery of affordable homes by local authorities. To support this, under the Serviced...

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

Darragh O'Brien: The Rebuilding Ireland Home Loan is designed to enable suitable first time buyers to access sustainable mortgage lending to purchase new or second-hand properties in a suitable price range, or to self build; it does not include undertaking refurbishment of existing houses. There are no plans currently to include refurbishment of existing houses as part of the Rebuilding Ireland Home Loans...

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

Darragh O'Brien: On 21 September 2020, I announced allocations under the new multi-annual capital investment programme for the progressive resolution of housing estates with “developer provided water services infrastructure”, to enable the taking in charge of these estates. The announcement followed an independent Expert Panel review of all valid bids. The Panel’s recommendations are...

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

Darragh O'Brien: The Galway Social Housing Task Force is continuing with its important work, including that of monitoring and accelerating the delivery of new social homes in the city and county. To date in 2021, the Task Force has met once and has three further meetings scheduled this year. I met with the Chair recently to discuss the Task Force's continuing work and I will be staying in contact with...

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

Darragh O'Brien: The management and maintenance of local authority housing stock, including pre-letting repairs to vacant properties, the implementation of a planned maintenance programme and carrying out of responsive repairs, are matters for each individual local authority under Section 58 of the Housing Act 1966. Notwithstanding the legal obligation on local authorities to manage and maintain their own...

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...