Results 1,761-1,780 of 2,386 for speaker:Michael Finneran

Written Answers — Housing Grants: Housing Grants (4 Dec 2008)

Michael Finneran: The Housing Aid for Older People scheme is available to assist older people to have necessary repairs or improvements carried out to their homes. Where a suite of works is being grant aided under this scheme, local authorities may also, as part of the package of works, assist with the provision of radon remediation works, where applicable. The administration of the Housing Aid for Older...

Written Answers — Rental Accommodation: Rental Accommodation (4 Dec 2008)

Michael Finneran: Responsibility for enforcing the regulations with regard to minimum standards for rental accommodation rests with the relevant local authority. My Department provides significant resources, from part of the proceeds of tenancy registration fees collected by the Private Residential Tenancies Board, to assist local authorities in discharging their functions under the Housing Acts in relation...

Seanad: Housing (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2008: Committee Stage (Resumed) (3 Dec 2008)

Michael Finneran: I cannot accept this amendment. No framework for the sale of local authority apartments is in place. Previous efforts to introduce tenant purchase for local authority apartments was thwarted by the difficulties associated with the scheme. Work is continuing on a model for the sale of apartments to tenants which addresses those difficulties. We are determined, however, to pursue an...

Seanad: Housing (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2008: Committee Stage (Resumed) (3 Dec 2008)

Michael Finneran: The Senator probably read recently that I have signed regulations regarding the private rented sector and the elimination of the bed-sit as we know it but this legislation is concerned with the sale of local authority apartments, which is a different issue. For information purposes, on the timeframe I can tell the Senator that we are allowing a four-year lead-in for structural works and...

Seanad: Housing (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2008: Committee Stage (Resumed) (3 Dec 2008)

Michael Finneran: The voluntary housing associations own those properties and while we have included in this legislation, under the incremental purchase scheme, the opportunity to purchase in the voluntary sector, that does not apply to existing local authority houses. It is for properties in place after that. A review of the voluntary side is taking place but I want to make it clear that those voluntary...

Seanad: Housing (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2008: Committee Stage (Resumed) (3 Dec 2008)

Michael Finneran: I am not sure I fully understand the Senator. Is he saying local authorities, in some instances, are refusing to sell to tenants in their houses?

Seanad: Housing (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2008: Committee Stage (Resumed) (3 Dec 2008)

Michael Finneran: Is the Senator referring to a tenant purchase at that stage?

Seanad: Housing (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2008: Committee Stage (Resumed) (3 Dec 2008)

Michael Finneran: The purchasee does not need to be on the housing waiting list. A provision is in place whereby one cannot sell one's house to somebody who engaged in anti-social behaviour, which is a protection. I am not aware of other restrictions.

Seanad: Housing (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2008: Committee Stage (Resumed) (3 Dec 2008)

Michael Finneran: Yes. The purchasee does not need to be on the housing list. There are categories of people to whom houses cannot be sold and I have mentioned one.

Seanad: Housing (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2008: Committee Stage (Resumed) (3 Dec 2008)

Michael Finneran: The amendment is required to delete the first reference to "an approved body" in section 39(3) because, unlike housing authorities, approved bodies are not mortgagees, that is, they do not extend house purchase improvement loans. The second reference to "an approved body" in the subsection stands, that is, an approved body that sold a dwelling under incremental purchase may purchase the...

Seanad: Housing (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2008: Committee Stage (Resumed) (3 Dec 2008)

Michael Finneran: The amendment is necessary to make it clear that a housing authority or an approved body may purchase the remaining interest in a mortgage only where the authority or the body concerned sold by way of incremental purchase the house the subject of the mortgage.

Seanad: Housing (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2008: Committee Stage (Resumed) (3 Dec 2008)

Michael Finneran: The amendment is required to insert the expression "market value", the meaning of which is defined in section 41, in regard to a site in the calculations set out in subsection (2) of the amount of the clawback payable on the first resale of a housing site grant aided under section 41 within 20 years of the site purchase.

Seanad: Housing (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2008: Committee Stage (Resumed) (3 Dec 2008)

Michael Finneran: The amendment substitutes a new subsection (5) for the existing subsection and clarifies that the amount of the clawback must be calculated in such a way that the net proceeds, that is, after clawback is discounted, from reselling the site are not less than the price originally paid for the site by the vendor. In other words, the amendment provides that the clawback cannot operate to leave...

Seanad: Housing (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2008: Committee Stage (Resumed) (3 Dec 2008)

Michael Finneran: The amendment is necessary to clarify the clawback under the section will apply to grants paid on foot of an application on or after a date to be prescribed by the Minister. This clawback relates to resales of dwellings with extensions designed to facilitate people with disabilities who are grant aided within the previous five years.

Seanad: Housing (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2008: Committee Stage (Resumed) (3 Dec 2008)

Michael Finneran: The amendment is required to clarify the percentage reduction of the clawback that applies on the second, third and fourth anniversaries of the grant payment, which is not covered by the existing provision. The amendment does not change the rate of reduction in the clawback payable in the case of sales over the five years following the payment of the grant. The wording has been amended to...

Seanad: Housing (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2008: Committee Stage (Resumed) (3 Dec 2008)

Michael Finneran: Amendments Nos. 95, 97 and 98 provide, by way of amendment to the Housing (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 1992, for the introduction of a new inspection and sanctions regime in regard to private rented accommodation. The new regime is one element of a package of measures recently approved by Government that will radically improve standards in rental accommodation. The other major element of...

Seanad: Housing (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2008: Committee Stage (Resumed) (3 Dec 2008)

Michael Finneran: This is a textual amendment to bring into line with other similar provisions of the Bill the phraseology of the reference to social housing assessments under section 20 of the Bill, which Part 4 of Schedule 2 proposes to insert into section 5(2)(a) of the Housing (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 1992.

Seanad: Housing (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2008: Committee Stage (Resumed) (3 Dec 2008)

Michael Finneran: This amendment is necessary to clarify that the expression "eligible household" in the amendment to section 14 of the Housing (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 1997, set out in Part 5 of the Schedule, is to be read within the meaning of Part 3 of the Bill. This is because the expression "eligible household" is defined in the Bill for the purposes of Part 3 only.

Seanad: Housing (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2008: Committee Stage (Resumed) (3 Dec 2008)

Michael Finneran: This amendment is required to clarify that the housing authority, in considering whether to refuse or to sell a dwelling under tenant purchase or incremental purchase, may take account of anti-social behaviour by a member of the tenant's household or of the eligible household, as well as the anti-social behaviour by the tenant of the eligible household concerned.

Seanad: Housing (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2008: Committee Stage (Resumed) (3 Dec 2008)

Michael Finneran: Part 6 of Schedule 2 makes amendments to the Housing (Traveller Accommodation) Act 1998, necessitated by the provisions in the main body of the Bill. Section 6 of the 1998 Act deals with periodic assessment of the accommodation needs of travellers and section 6(3) deals with consultation with the bodies specified in paragraphs (a) to (d) of section 9(4) of the Housing Act 1988. Section 9 of...