Results 17,561-17,580 of 40,897 for speaker:Simon Coveney

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government: Local Authority Staff Data (16 Sep 2016)

Simon Coveney: My Department gathers quarterly data on staff numbers in local authorities. The data gathered do not provide detail in respect of the number of personnel employed in the housing and planning sections within each local authority, and accordingly, the information requested is not available in my Department.

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government: Housing Estates (16 Sep 2016)

Simon Coveney: Some €10 million has been made available in 2016 to fund the National Taking in Charge Initiative, which will assist local authorities in developing new approaches to addressing housing estates, including those with developer-provided water services infrastructure that, for various reasons, have not been taken in charge to date. On 8 July 2016, following consideration of...

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government: Private Residential Tenancies Board Enforcement (16 Sep 2016)

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

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government: Proposed Legislation (16 Sep 2016)

Simon Coveney: The principal Planning and Development Regulations 2001 were amended in September 2011 by the Planning and Development (Amendment) (No. 2) Regulations 2011 to provide that initial afforestation shall be exempted development. This activity is exempted from the requirement to obtain planning permission, as it is subject to a separate statutory development consent system under the European...

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government: Housing Assistance Payments Administration (16 Sep 2016)

Simon Coveney: Consistent with its stated commitment in the Programme for a Partnership Government, the Government increased both Rent Supplement and Housing Assistance Payment (HAP) rent limits in every local authority area, taking account of geographic variations in market rents, with effect from 1 July 2016. In addition, additional flexibility above the existing HAP rent limits was made available to all...

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government: Commissioner of Valuation (16 Sep 2016)

Simon Coveney: I understand that the Question refers to global valuations of property of utility undertakings carried out by the Commissioner of Valuation. The Commissioner for Valuation is responsible for valuation matters, including the global valuation of property of public utility undertakings under Part 11 of the Valuation Acts 2001 to 2015. The Valuation Acts 2001 to 2015 come under the remit...

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government: NAMA Social Housing Provision (16 Sep 2016)

Simon Coveney: The National Asset Management Agency (NAMA) plays an important role in the delivery of social housing. To the end of June 2016, a total of 2,135 residential properties, which are part of the security for loans that NAMA has acquired, had been secured for use by local authorities or approved housing bodies. These comprise 1,588 completed properties and a further 547 that had been contracted...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Action Plan for Housing and Homelessness: Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government (14 Sep 2016)

Simon Coveney: I thank the committee members who came to the Department last week. I hope they found it useful. We are trying to ensure everybody has access to all the information they need on the action plan which will be a feature of the lifetime of this Government. The more people who know the detail of what we propose, costing, numbers and timescales for different targets, the better for everybody. ...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Action Plan for Housing and Homelessness: Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government (14 Sep 2016)

Simon Coveney: I have a briefing note which members can take away afterwards so they know what we are doing. There is no great mystery to most of this stuff. It is about streamlining the planning process, extensions of planning in certain circumstances, protecting tenants in terms of security of tenure when there is a sales process in a development and beefing up the RTB in certain areas to get decisions...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Action Plan for Housing and Homelessness: Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government (14 Sep 2016)

Simon Coveney: I have a speaking note but there is also an explanatory briefing note which I believe members might find useful. We can go through it pillar by pillar.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Action Plan for Housing and Homelessness: Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government (14 Sep 2016)

Simon Coveney: We can talk through that. It is not a problem. In fact, what we are doing on Part 8 is not very radical. It is really about trying to get decisions two weeks earlier. It imposes a stopgap, in that it forces a decision. Part of the problem with Part 8 is that further information is requested repeatedly to try and create more time for consideration, because there might be political issues...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Action Plan for Housing and Homelessness: Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government (14 Sep 2016)

Simon Coveney: It is the Deputy's committee, so it is in her hands. I am only here to answer questions.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Action Plan for Housing and Homelessness: Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government (14 Sep 2016)

Simon Coveney: To be helpful, we do not have the legislation yet. Legally, I cannot give it to the committee until I get the heads of the legislation approved by the Cabinet. I am giving the committee, which is very unusual, a quite detailed briefing note on what will be in the legislation, to ensure I am not doing anything that is inappropriate. I have to get it through the Government. We plan to bring...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Action Plan for Housing and Homelessness: Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government (14 Sep 2016)

Simon Coveney: That is the point I am making-----

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Action Plan for Housing and Homelessness: Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government (14 Sep 2016)

Simon Coveney: No. Once the heads of the legislation are approved by the Cabinet I can e-mail everybody the legislation that afternoon. There is no problem with that. I am asking that we would not have a formal pre-legislative scrutiny stage which often involves the committee inviting experts, witnesses and so forth and delays the process by at least six weeks, perhaps more. Incidentally, we will be...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Action Plan for Housing and Homelessness: Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government (14 Sep 2016)

Simon Coveney: To be clear, I am not seeking a decision from the committee today. I am stating how I am going to proceed. It is up to the committee to decide if it wishes to move with that proposed procedure. In two weeks' time, I hope, we will bring the heads of the Bill to Cabinet to get its approval in principle for it. After that there is a drafting process to produce the heads of the Bill that can...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Action Plan for Housing and Homelessness: Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government (14 Sep 2016)

Simon Coveney: That is a separate issue.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Action Plan for Housing and Homelessness: Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government (14 Sep 2016)

Simon Coveney: We can debate that content if the Deputy wishes.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Action Plan for Housing and Homelessness: Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government (14 Sep 2016)

Simon Coveney: I can deal with these are we go through the pillars. On the broader rental market, we have said we will have new initiatives relating to the broader rental sector before the end of the year. These will try to balance the need to continue to incentivise investment in rental property from a landlord and developer perspective and the need to deal with issues such as security of tenure, more...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Action Plan for Housing and Homelessness: Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government (14 Sep 2016)

Simon Coveney: I do not have an issue with doing that. It would be no problem.