Results 161-180 of 15,723 for speaker:Eoin Ó Broin

Select Committee on Housing, Local Government and Heritage: Estimates for Public Services 2025
Vote 34 - Housing, Local Government and Heritage (Further Revised) (2 Oct 2025)

Eoin Ó Broin: Would the Minister be hopeful that he might initiate his element of that review next year? Is it in a spreadsheet or calendar somewhere? Does he have a notion of when that might start?

Select Committee on Housing, Local Government and Heritage: Estimates for Public Services 2025
Vote 34 - Housing, Local Government and Heritage (Further Revised) (2 Oct 2025)

Eoin Ó Broin: I am out of time but I will come back in the next round.

Select Committee on Housing, Local Government and Heritage: Estimates for Public Services 2025
Vote 34 - Housing, Local Government and Heritage (Further Revised) (2 Oct 2025)

Eoin Ó Broin: I have more, but-----

Select Committee on Housing, Local Government and Heritage: Estimates for Public Services 2025
Vote 34 - Housing, Local Government and Heritage (Further Revised) (2 Oct 2025)

Eoin Ó Broin: While we are on legislation, the comprehensive multi-unit development defects scheme and the legislation for that are relevant to the REV, in that that area of expenditure is ultimately going to increase and require the legislation. Is it the Minister's intention to bring a general scheme or a completed Bill forward and is there a timeline for that?

Select Committee on Housing, Local Government and Heritage: Estimates for Public Services 2025
Vote 34 - Housing, Local Government and Heritage (Further Revised) (2 Oct 2025)

Eoin Ó Broin: And pretty much every other county, unfortunately.

Select Committee on Housing, Local Government and Heritage: Estimates for Public Services 2025
Vote 34 - Housing, Local Government and Heritage (Further Revised) (2 Oct 2025)

Eoin Ó Broin: Yes.

Select Committee on Housing, Local Government and Heritage: Estimates for Public Services 2025
Vote 34 - Housing, Local Government and Heritage (Further Revised) (2 Oct 2025)

Eoin Ó Broin: To say the least.

Select Committee on Housing, Local Government and Heritage: Estimates for Public Services 2025
Vote 34 - Housing, Local Government and Heritage (Further Revised) (2 Oct 2025)

Eoin Ó Broin: It would be good to know first of all if it is going to be a general scheme or a Bill, and when. On the pathfinders and also the pilot scheme for the retrospective payments, which is coming out of the €118 million, am I right in saying that no money has still actually been drawn down on any of the pathfinders because of some of those challenges?

Select Committee on Housing, Local Government and Heritage: Estimates for Public Services 2025
Vote 34 - Housing, Local Government and Heritage (Further Revised) (2 Oct 2025)

Eoin Ó Broin: On the pilot for the retrospective payments, am I correct that no money has been drawn down on that side either?

Select Committee on Housing, Local Government and Heritage: Estimates for Public Services 2025
Vote 34 - Housing, Local Government and Heritage (Further Revised) (2 Oct 2025)

Eoin Ó Broin: I got a very helpful parliamentary question reply on the outturn for last year's Vote. The one head that we did not get an outturn figure for was the croí cónaithe towns vacancy supports, the outturn for 2024. I am just wondering if Ms Ryan or anyone else on the team has the figure for the total spent on subhead A36 last year.

Select Committee on Housing, Local Government and Heritage: Estimates for Public Services 2025
Vote 34 - Housing, Local Government and Heritage (Further Revised) (2 Oct 2025)

Eoin Ó Broin: Yes. The REV for this year is now €118 million but I am keen to get the figure for the outturn last year.

Select Committee on Housing, Local Government and Heritage: Estimates for Public Services 2025
Vote 34 - Housing, Local Government and Heritage (Further Revised) (2 Oct 2025)

Eoin Ó Broin: While somebody is looking for that, there are now increasing demands on An Coimisiún Pleanála arising from the renewable energy directive III as well as other matters. In terms of additional funding for the staff of An Coimisiún Pleanála, there have been significant sanctions and the commission faces challenges in getting those staff. We are hearing from wind energy...

Select Committee on Housing, Local Government and Heritage: Estimates for Public Services 2025
Vote 34 - Housing, Local Government and Heritage (Further Revised) (2 Oct 2025)

Eoin Ó Broin: The commission is actively recruiting and that is all very welcome. The one thing I would say is that a lot of it is in the context of the backlog, the changing nature of planning applications and also the other non-planning functions the commission has to deal with, including some of the appeals and so on. What we are hearing through my colleague Deputy Pa Daly and his outreach to the...

Select Committee on Housing, Local Government and Heritage: Estimates for Public Services 2025
Vote 34 - Housing, Local Government and Heritage (Further Revised) (2 Oct 2025)

Eoin Ó Broin: Obviously, there is no additional money for response maintenance and casual relets of voids. What I notice in the NOAC report that was published last week or early this week is that the 22-week average turnaround period, which is the real problem as opposed to the number of units, has now stretched out to 30-something weeks, which means we are going backwards. I appreciate some of this is...

Select Committee on Housing, Local Government and Heritage: Estimates for Public Services 2025
Vote 34 - Housing, Local Government and Heritage (Further Revised) (2 Oct 2025)

Eoin Ó Broin: To finish that, it has gone from an average turnaround time of 22 weeks in the previous year to 35.56 weeks. The vacancy rate is actually quite small. The vacancy rate in the public housing sector is about half the vacancy rate in the general housing sector, and 1% is great, but even 2% is not the problem. The problem is the length of time. It is one thing for the Minister of State or I...

Select Committee on Housing, Local Government and Heritage: Estimates for Public Services 2025
Vote 34 - Housing, Local Government and Heritage (Further Revised) (2 Oct 2025)

Eoin Ó Broin: The NOAC figure includes all of that, from keys coming in to keys going back.

Select Committee on Housing, Local Government and Heritage: Estimates for Public Services 2025
Vote 34 - Housing, Local Government and Heritage (Further Revised) (2 Oct 2025)

Eoin Ó Broin: That includes Garda vetting and so on. Other than saying what we would like to happen, does the Minister of State intend to do something concrete, which he would have our support on, to get the local authorities in this space to become more efficient?

Select Committee on Housing, Local Government and Heritage: Estimates for Public Services 2025
Vote 34 - Housing, Local Government and Heritage (Further Revised) (2 Oct 2025)

Eoin Ó Broin: I will accept that offer now and-----

Select Committee on Housing, Local Government and Heritage: Estimates for Public Services 2025
Vote 34 - Housing, Local Government and Heritage (Further Revised) (2 Oct 2025)

Eoin Ó Broin: I will tell the Minister of State what I think needs to happen. A new circular needs to be issued. A target timeline needs to be set, reducing over a period of years. There needs to be more flexibility for funding. Some properties will require more than the maximum that can be provided, while others currently require less. There are issues of monitoring and reporting. We should not have...

Select Committee on Housing, Local Government and Heritage: Estimates for Public Services 2025
Vote 34 - Housing, Local Government and Heritage (Further Revised) (2 Oct 2025)

Eoin Ó Broin: As the Minister of State raised the issue, our party is keen to get the amending legislation done as soon as possible. We would we be willing to waive pre-legislative scrutiny, obviously subject to seeing the content of it. It would be good to know if there is a timeline for that. My colleagues in Donegal, Mayo and Clare are raising this more regularly than I am, but the delay is...