Results 161-180 of 9,144 for speaker:James Browne

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Housing Provision (8 Oct 2025)

James Browne: The Revised National Planning Framework (NPF) was finalised and approved by Government and the Oireachtas in April 2025. The Revised NPF identifies the need to plan for approximately 50,000 additional households per annum to 2040. The Revised NPF provides the basis for the review and updating of Regional Spatial and Economic Strategies (RSESs) and local authority development plans to...

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Housing Provision (8 Oct 2025)

James Browne: I propose to take Questions Nos. 60 and 116 together. The clear focus of this Government is to increase the supply of new build social and affordable homes. This is key to addressing the housing challenge and in particular preventing and ultimately eliminating long term homelessness, and that unquestionably must be the priority for all local authorities. The social housing PPP programme...

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Rental Sector (8 Oct 2025)

James Browne: The Government continues to bring forward measures to boost supply across all tenures, including the private rental market. The recently revised National Planning Framework is a major step forward in this regard, and will help increase capacity and accelerate home building across the country, while the new Housing Activation Office will work to address barriers to the delivery of...

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Housing Policy (8 Oct 2025)

James Browne: Housing for All includes a commitment to review income eligibility for social housing. From this review, completed in November 2021, it was recommended moving five local authorities from Band 3 to Band 2, ensuring the income eligibility thresholds better reflect housing costs in those counties. Government also agreed to increase the baseline income thresholds by €5,000 for all local...

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Water Quality (8 Oct 2025)

James Browne: I acknowledge the very challenging situation in relation to managing and reversing the poor water quality witnessed in Lough Neagh. Responsibility for the management of environmental pressures in the catchment area of Lough Neagh lies primarily with the authorities in Northern Ireland. Monaghan County Council, with the support of the Local Authority Waters Programme (LAWPRO) shared service,...

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Domestic, Sexual and Gender-based Violence (8 Oct 2025)

James Browne: The response to Domestic, Sexual and Gender-Based Violence (DSGBV) is a cross-Departmental and multi-agency issue, with overall policy coordinated by the Department of Justice. Responsibility for the development and provision of services to support victims rests with my colleague the Minister for Justice working in conjunction with Cuan, the statutory DSGBV agency under the remit of the...

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Energy Conservation (8 Oct 2025)

James Browne: In 2021 a new holistic approach was applied to the Energy Efficiency Retrofit Programme (EERP). Designed around the Programme for Government's commitment, led by the Department for the Environment, Climate and Communications, it calls for the 'retrofit' of 500,000 homes to a minimum B2 BER Rating standard by 2030, of which approximately 36,500 are expected to be local authority owned homes,...

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Housing Schemes (8 Oct 2025)

James Browne: The First Home Scheme, which launched in July 2022, is a shared equity scheme, designed to help bridge the gap between the deposit and mortgage for eligible first-time buyers, Fresh Start applicants and self-builders, and the price of their new home (within price ceilings established across the country). Full details are available on the First Home Scheme website. The First Home Scheme...

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Water Pollution (8 Oct 2025)

James Browne: In relation to Lady’s Island Lake, my colleague, Minister of State, Christopher O’Sullivan has met with officials from the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (DAFM), Wexford County Council and Local Authority Waters Programme (LAWPRO) along with officials from the National Parks and Wildlife (NPWS) & the Water Division within my Department. From this...

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Vacant Properties (8 Oct 2025)

James Browne: I propose to take Questions Nos. 76, 111 and 117 together. The management and maintenance of local authority housing stock, including pre-letting repairs to vacant properties, is a matter for each individual local authority under Section 58 of the Housing Act 1966. Local authorities also have a legal obligation to ensure all their tenanted properties are compliant with the provisions of...

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Local Authorities (8 Oct 2025)

James Browne: 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. Local authorities also have a legal obligation to ensure that all of their tenanted properties...

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Planning Issues (8 Oct 2025)

James Browne: I propose to take Questions Nos. 81, 89, 98 and 109 together. Rural Housing Guidelines were last issued in 2005 as Ministerial Guidelines under Section 28 of the Planning and Development Act 2000. These Guidelines provide that people who are an intrinsic part of the rural community, on the basis of an economic or social need, should be facilitated in all rural areas. In areas under...

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Water Services (8 Oct 2025)

James Browne: The Greater Dublin Drainage (GDD) is an essential national infrastructure project to develop a new regional wastewater treatment facility and associated infrastructure at Clonshaugh, Co Dublin to provide for growth in the Greater Dublin Area (GDA) and parts of counties Kildare and Meath. The GDD received planning permission from An Coimisiún Pleanála in July 2025, however, a...

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Local Authorities (8 Oct 2025)

James Browne: Local authorities are entirely independent corporate entities having full responsibility under law for the performance of their functions and the discharge of their governance and other responsibilities. They provide in excess of 1,000 services on behalf of over 30 public bodies. Accordingly, the funding system for local authorities is a complex one, as authorities derive their income from a...

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Fire Stations (8 Oct 2025)

James Browne: 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: Rental Sector (8 Oct 2025)

James Browne: On 10 June 2025, the Government approved stronger tenancy protections and greater certainty for the rental sector, including the introduction of a national rent control, as part of a suite of measures to boost the supply of new homes and secure and grow the availability of rental accommodation. The Residential Tenancies (Amendment) Act 2025 was signed into law on 19 June 2025. The Act...

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Wastewater Treatment (8 Oct 2025)

James Browne: Under my Department's Multi-annual Rural Water Programme, approval in principle of some €45 million in funding has been given to a number of projects addressing the wastewater collection and treatment needs of villages without access to public wastewater services. This includes the Craughwell and Clarinbridge projects referenced in the Question. The delivery of these projects is...

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Rental Sector (8 Oct 2025)

James Browne: The Residential Tenancies Acts 2004-2025 (the RTA) regulate the landlord-tenant relationship in the private rented sector and sets out the rights and obligations of landlords and tenants. The RTA apply to every dwelling that is the subject of a tenancy, subject to a limited number of exceptions. The dwellings to which the RTA does not apply are set out in section 3(2) of the RTA, and...

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Rental Sector (8 Oct 2025)

James Browne: The EU Short Term Rental (STR) Regulation was adopted by the EU on 11 April 2024 and is applicable from 20 May 2026. This Regulation lays down harmonised rules on the collection and exchange of data on short-term rental services for member states, hosts providing short-term accommodation rental services, and online platforms that offer services to hosts providing short-term accommodation...

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Wastewater Treatment (8 Oct 2025)

James Browne: Since 1 January 2024, responsibility for the remediation of Developer Provided Infrastructure (DPI), including wastewater treatment plants in housing estates not taken in charge, has transferred to the national water authority, Uisce Éireann. A dedicated multi-stakeholder group comprising Uisce Éireann, the local authorities and officials from my Department, continues to oversee...