Results 15,841-15,860 of 26,886 for speaker:Darragh O'Brien

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Home Loan Scheme (24 Feb 2021)

Darragh O'Brien: I propose to take Questions Nos. 314 and 315 together. 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...

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Coastal Erosion (24 Feb 2021)

Darragh O'Brien: The National Coastal Change Management Strategy Steering Group is jointly chaired by my Department and the Office of Public Works (OPW). The Group is comprised of senior officials from the Department of Communications, Climate Action and the Environment, the Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport, the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform, the Department of Agriculture, Food and the...

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Fire Service (24 Feb 2021)

Darragh O'Brien: The provision of a fire service in its functional area, including the establishment and maintenance of a fire brigade, the assessment of fire cover needs and the provision of fire station premises, is a statutory function of individual fire authorities under the Fire Services Acts, 1981 and 2003. My Department supports the fire authorities through setting general policy, providing a central...

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Local Authority Housing (24 Feb 2021)

Darragh O'Brien: My Department is committed to a transition from the current funding programmes for stock improvement works to a planned maintenance funding approach driven by strategic and targeted local authority work programmes, informed by stock condition surveys. My Department is therefore working with the local authority sector, through the City and County Management Association, to drive a planned...

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Local Authority Housing (24 Feb 2021)

Darragh O'Brien: The management and maintenance of local authority housing stock, including the cost of pre-letting repairs to vacant properties and the carrying out of responsive repairs, are matters for each individual local authority under Section 58 of the Housing Act 1966. However since 2014, Exchequer funding has also been provided through my Departments Voids programme to support local authorities in...

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Local Authority Housing (24 Feb 2021)

Darragh O'Brien: Since 2014, Exchequer funding has been provided through my Department's Voids Programme to support local authorities in preparing vacant units for re-letting. This funding is increasingly targeted to support local authority's to ensure minimal turnaround and re-let times for vacant stock. In relation to the Standard Void and Homeless Void options, these were introduced in 2020 based on...

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Tenant Purchase Scheme (24 Feb 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: Housing Assistance Payment (24 Feb 2021)

Darragh O'Brien: A landlord or an agent acting on behalf of a landlord is not legally obliged to enter into a tenancy agreement specifically with a Housing Assistance Payment (HAP) recipient. However, on 1 January 2016, the Equality (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 2015 introduced “housing assistance” as a new discriminatory ground. This means that discrimination in the provision of accommodation,...

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Covid-19 Pandemic (24 Feb 2021)

Darragh O'Brien: The Residential Tenancies Act 2020 was enacted and came into operation on 24 October 2020 to help mitigate the impact of Covid-19 on tenants and to support the efforts of Government in restricting the movement of people in order to suppress the spread of Covid-19. The Act modifies the operation of the Residential Tenancies Acts 2004-2020 to prevent any notices of termination served by...

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Housing Assistance Payment (24 Feb 2021)

Darragh O'Brien: Increased rent limits for the Housing Assistance Payment (HAP) and the Rent Supplement Scheme were introduced in 2016. These limits were agreed in conjunction with the Department of Social Protection (DSP). In reviewing the rent limits, my Department worked closely with DSP and monitored data gathered from the Residential Tenancies Board and the HAP Shared Services Centre. The HAP rent...

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Irish Water (24 Feb 2021)

Darragh O'Brien: Since 1 January 2014, Irish Water has statutory responsibility for all aspects of water services planning, delivery and operation at national, regional and local levels. My Department provided capital stimulus funding of €87 million to Irish Water in 2020 . This was composed of €43m announced in the July stimulus package (€30m Leakage Reduction Initiatives and...

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Nursing Homes Support Scheme (24 Feb 2021)

Darragh O'Brien: The Programme for Government – Our Shared Future contains a commitment to reform the Fair Deal Scheme to incentivise renting out vacant properties. This commitment builds upon commitments included in the former Government's Strategy for the Rental Sector and National Vacant Housing Reuse Strategy, to examine the treatment under the Nursing Home Support Scheme’s (or Fair Deal...

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Approved Housing Bodies (24 Feb 2021)

Darragh O'Brien: The information requested is being compiled and will be forwarded to the Deputy in accordance with Standing Orders.

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Departmental Expenditure (24 Feb 2021)

Darragh O'Brien: My Department has not incurred any expenditure on advertising in national newspapers, regional newspapers, national radio, regional and local radio stations and across social media platforms on COVID-19 awareness raising campaigns. However, in 2020, my Department spent €192,907 on public information material as part of the Government's response to the COVID-19 pandemic. This...

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Urban Regeneration and Development Fund (24 Feb 2021)

Darragh O'Brien: I propose to take Questions Nos. 340 to 343, inclusive, together. The Urban Regeneration and Development Fund (URDF) was launched in 2018 to support more compact and sustainable development. The Fund is providing part-funding for projects that will enable a greater proportion of residential and mixed-use development to be delivered within the existing built-up footprints of our cities and...

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Local Authority Schemes (24 Feb 2021)

Darragh O'Brien: Responsibility for the management and maintenance of the local authority housing stock is the responsibility of the local authority under section 58 of the Housing Act 1966. My Department supports local authorities with annual funding to support management and maintenance of their social housing stock under a number of funding programmes. The programmes include the newly revised 2021...

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Flood Prevention Measures (24 Feb 2021)

Darragh O'Brien: Since 1 January 2014, Irish Water has statutory responsibility for all aspects of water services planning, delivery and operation at national, regional and local levels. As part of Budget 2021, I secured funding of over €1.4 billion to support water services. This includes €1.3 billion in respect of domestic water services provision by Irish Water. This overall investment...

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Environmental Policy (18 Feb 2021)

Darragh O'Brien: In terms of addressing primary microplastic sources, the Microbeads (Prohibition) Act 2019 prohibits the manufacture or placing on the market of any water soluble personal care product, such as cosmetics, soaps and body washes containing microbeads. It also prohibits the sale or manufacture of household or industrial cleaning products containing plastic microbeads. Any measure or activity...

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Housing Issues (18 Feb 2021)

Darragh O'Brien: The Housing (Standards for Rented Houses) Regulations 2019 specify requirements in relation to a range of matters, such as structural repair, sanitary facilities, heating, ventilation, natural light and the safety of gas, oil and electrical supplies. With very limited exemptions, these apply to all private rented residential accommodation. All landlords have a legal obligation to...

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Departmental Funding (18 Feb 2021)

Darragh O'Brien: Details of the grant schemes for which individuals or community organisations can apply directly to the Department, are set out in the attached table. In addition to those schemes, my Department provides funding for a number of schemes that are administered by local authorities such as the Housing Adaptation Grants and Defective Concrete Block Schemes. Local authorities provide details of...