Results 15,761-15,780 of 40,897 for speaker:Simon Coveney

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government: Social and Affordable Housing Applications Data (2 Feb 2017)

Simon Coveney: At the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government on Wednesday, 18 January 2017, my Department indicated that details of all approved social housing projects are being updated and would be published in conjunction with the next Rebuilding Ireland quarterly implementation report, which is due in the coming weeks. The list will also be provided to the...

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government: Control of Dogs (2 Feb 2017)

Simon Coveney: Under the Control of Dogs Acts, local authorities have responsibility for operating and managing dog control and licensing services in their administrative areas, including the management of dog pounds or shelters and my Department has no involvement in this process. The procurement of any service in that regard, therefore, is a matter for each local authority, and the management and...

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government: Private Rented Accommodation (2 Feb 2017)

Simon Coveney: The Residential Tenancies Acts 2004 to 2016 regulate the landlord-tenant relationship in the private rented residential sector and set out the rights and obligations of landlords and tenants. The Residential Tenancies Board (RTB) was established as an independent statutory body under the Acts to operate a national tenancy registration system and to resolve disputes between landlords and...

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government: Rent Controls (2 Feb 2017)

Simon Coveney: I propose to take Questions Nos. 149 and 153 together. The Planning and Development (Housing) and Residential Tenancies Act 2016 amends the Residential Tenancies Act 2004 to provide that the Housing Agency, in consultation with housing authorities, may make a proposal to the Minister that an area should be considered as a Rent Pressure Zone. Following receipt of such a proposal, the...

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government: Departmental Funding (2 Feb 2017)

Simon Coveney: The Further Revised Estimates Volume for Public Services 2016, published by the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform, provided for gross capital expenditure of €505.244 million (inclusive of €32m in unspent funding from 2015) in respect of my Department in 2016. The provisional gross capital outturn for my Department was €496.029 million last year....

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government: Foreshore Licence Applications (2 Feb 2017)

Simon Coveney: The Marine Licence Vetting Committee is in the process of being convened. The details of the committee will be provided when they are available. As the applicant in the case concerned is the Marine Institute, no member of staff of the Marine Institute will be involved in any way with the assessment of this application. The Marine Licence Vetting Committee is expected to meet to assess this...

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government: Rent Controls (2 Feb 2017)

Simon Coveney: The Planning and Development (Housing) and Residential Tenancies Act 2016 amends the Residential Tenancies Act 2004 to provide that the Housing Agency, in consultation with housing authorities, may make a proposal to the Minister that an area should be considered as a Rent Pressure Zone. Following receipt of such a proposal, the Minister requests the Director of the Residential Tenancies...

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government: Wastewater Treatment Facilities Inspections (2 Feb 2017)

Simon Coveney: Section 70 of the Water Services Act 2007 places a duty of care on the owner of a premises to ensure that their waste water treatment systems are kept so as not to cause, or be likely to cause, a risk to human health or the environment, including water, the atmosphere, land, soil, plants or animals, or create a nuisance through odours. The duty of care provisions have been augmented by the...

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government: Rental Sector (2 Feb 2017)

Simon Coveney: On 13 December 2016, Government approved the publication of a Strategy for the Rental Sector, which delivers on a commitment made under Pillar 4 of Rebuilding Ireland. The strategy is structured around 4 key areas: security, standards, supply and services. The measures under these four headings will be implemented through the 29 actions contained in the Strategy. In terms of supply, the...

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government: Departmental Communications (2 Feb 2017)

Simon Coveney: I refer to the reply to Question No 240 of 13 December 2016. Ministers of State Catherine Byrne and Damien English have both confirmed that they do not use non-Departmental personal email accounts for work purposes. My Department does allow staff to access personal web-based email accounts from the network, but does not permit the use of such personal email accounts for Departmental...

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government: Commencement of Legislation (2 Feb 2017)

Simon Coveney: The information requested is being compiled and will be forwarded to the Deputy in accordance with Standing Orders.

Topical Issue Debate: Rent Controls (1 Feb 2017)

Simon Coveney: Families on low incomes get many supports, for example, the housing assistance payment, HAP, the rental accommodation scheme and rent supplement. We took an extra 12,000 people onto the HAP scheme last year. We will take on even more, probably a further 15,000, this year. HAP and rent supplement payments were increased significantly last summer in many areas where there had been rental...

Topical Issue Debate: Rent Controls (1 Feb 2017)

Simon Coveney: I thank the Deputy for raising the concerns of many people he represents very effectively in Drogheda. He rightly points out that rent pressure zone designation is assessed on the basis of local electoral areas. When local electoral area boundaries divide urban communities, as they do in certain parts of Drogheda, there are anomalies and consequences about which some people are not happy....

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government: Social and Affordable Housing (1 Feb 2017)

Simon Coveney: I propose to take Questions Nos. 206 and 221 together. Action 4.6 of Rebuilding Ireland provided for the introduction of an affordable rental scheme to enhance the capacity of the private rented sector to provide quality and affordable accommodation for households currently paying a disproportionate amount of disposable income on rent. As set out in the recently published Strategy...

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government: Legislative Measures (1 Feb 2017)

Simon Coveney: The Planning and Development (Housing) and Residential Tenancies Act 2016 was enacted on 23 December 2016. The commencement provisions in section 1 of the Act provide that the amendments to the Local Government Act 1998 in Part 5 came into operation on the day of enactment, and that sections 33 to 37, 46, 47 and 50 of Part 3 - which amend the Residential Tenancies Act 2004 - came into...

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government: Housing Assistance Payments Implementation (1 Feb 2017)

Simon Coveney: The Homeless Pilot of the HAP scheme has been operational since February 2015, across the four housing authorities in the Dublin Region, i.e. Dublin City Council, Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council, Fingal County Council and South Dublin County Council, and is being implemented through the Dublin Region Homeless Executive (DRHE). The focus of this pilot remains the transitioning of...

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government: Social and Affordable Housing Data (1 Feb 2017)

Simon Coveney: The management and maintenance of local authority housing stock, including the implementation of planned maintenance programmes and standard and responsive pre-letting repairs, is a matter for each individual local authority under section 58 of the Housing Act, 1966 and are not directly funded by my Department and would not be included in housing statistics. However the Voids programme was...

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government: Social and Affordable Housing Funding (1 Feb 2017)

Simon Coveney: Investment in social housing through the public private partnership or PPP model is part of a wider plan to accelerate the supply of social housing, reflected in the second pillar of the Rebuilding Ireland Action Plan for Housing & Homelessness, launched in July 2016. To enable delivery to commence as quickly as possible, the PPP programme is being rolled-out in three bundles. The...

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government: Planning Issues (1 Feb 2017)

Simon Coveney: A detailed and national level policy approach in relation to residential densities in urban areas has already been set out in my Department’s Guidelines for Planning Authorities on Sustainable Residential Development in Urban Areas, published in May 2009 under Section 28 of the Planning and Development Act 2000, as amended. The objective of these Guidelines is to ensure local...

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government: Mortgage to Rent Scheme Administration (1 Feb 2017)

Simon Coveney: The Mortgage to Rent (MTR) scheme for borrowers of private commercial lending institutions was introduced in 2012. The scheme is part of the overall suite of social housing options and is an important part of the mortgage arrears resolution process. Up to the end of December 2016, a total of 3,575 cases have been submitted under the MTR scheme. Of these, 2,723 were ineligible or terminated...