Results 1-20 of 2,750 for speaker:Christopher O'Sullivan

Seanad: Nithe i dtosach suíonna - Commencement Matters: Planning Issues (21 Oct 2025)

Christopher O'Sullivan: I thank the Senator for the way she articulated the case for Drogheda to become a city. Clearly it is her home town - or city - and she is very proud of it. This came across incredibly well. She is proud of the progress that it has made but she has also identified some challenges which she sees city status as a key way of overcoming. I will outline the Department’s position and...

Seanad: Nithe i dtosach suíonna - Commencement Matters: Planning Issues (21 Oct 2025)

Christopher O'Sullivan: The Senator is right that the establishment of a local authority is primary legislation. However, the recognition of somewhere as a city is different. That has been done through charters and by different methods over the centuries. To back up the Senator's point, the CSO will define a city as having a population over 50,000. Drogheda ticks that box. Kilkenny only has a population of...

Seanad: Housing Finance Agency (Amendment) Bill 2025: Second Stage (21 Oct 2025)

Christopher O'Sullivan: I thank the Chair. It is an absolute pleasure to be here to introduce this legislation, the Housing Finance Agency (Amendment) Bill 2025. All Stages of this Bill were passed last week in the Dáil. Its purpose is to amend section 10 of the Housing Finance Agency Acts 1981 to 2024. The amendment, through section 1, will increase the statutory borrowing limit, SBL, of the Housing...

Seanad: Housing Finance Agency (Amendment) Bill 2025: Second Stage (21 Oct 2025)

Christopher O'Sullivan: I thank all of the Senators who contributed to the debate this evening. It is great to see that there is widespread support for the legislation here, as there was in the Dáil, and for good reason. There is a general acknowledgement of the need for local authorities and approved housing bodies to get access to this extra finance in order to ramp up supply and deliver much-needed homes....

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: EU Directives (21 Oct 2025)

Christopher O'Sullivan: The “Coastal Lagoons: Ecology and Restoration: CLEAR” report published by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), produced under funding from the EPA and the National Parks and Wildlife Service (NPWS) of my Department, identified severe water quality problems in Lady’s Island Lake. In terms of coordinating a response, I have established an inter-agency working...

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Land Issues (21 Oct 2025)

Christopher O'Sullivan: The National Parks and Wildlife Service (NPWS), the executive agency with responsibility for managing Ireland's National Parks and Nature Reserves, occasionally purchases land for strategic and conservation purposes. Such acquisitions are considered carefully on a case by case basis, weighing the environmental and operational benefits of a site against the overall cost. In light of the...

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Departmental Reviews (21 Oct 2025)

Christopher O'Sullivan: My Department’s Multi-Annual Rural Water Programme (MARWP) provides capital funding to address the key challenges faced by the rural water sector, particularly group water schemes, with a primary focus on ensuring the supply of safe and secure drinking water to households in rural areas. Under the current MARWP cycle, covering 2024 to the end of 2026, the programme’s funding...

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Wastewater Treatment (21 Oct 2025)

Christopher O'Sullivan: Grant assistance is available in specific circumstances to support householders where defective Domestic Waste Water Treatment Systems (DWWTS), including septic tanks, present the greatest risk to the environment or to public health. In particular, grants may be accessed where a system has failed an inspection under the National Inspection Plan and an Advisory Notice has issued, or where...

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Departmental Staff (21 Oct 2025)

Christopher O'Sullivan: Recruitment in the current market has presented challenges. However, through sustained effort and collaboration my Department has successfully attracted and appointed skilled and committed professionals across a range of disciplines. This achievement reflects the strength of our recruitment strategy and the growing recognition of this Department and the National Parks and Wildlife Service...

Seanad: Nithe i dtosach suíonna - Commencement Matters: Defective Building Materials (16 Oct 2025)

Christopher O'Sullivan: I thank Senator Cosgrove for bringing this up. She is a fellow west Cork person. People are proud of her in west Cork. It is an honour to take this Commencement matter as we fly the flag for west Cork in the Houses of the Oireachtas. I sincerely thank her for raising this. I know she has been to visit those affected and has seen how the houses are crumbling and the psychological impact...

Seanad: Nithe i dtosach suíonna - Commencement Matters: Defective Building Materials (16 Oct 2025)

Christopher O'Sullivan: I thank the Senator again. Her raising and highlighting the matter broadens awareness of the impacts it is having. We were chatting earlier and talking about the technical element in that if you are only partially rebuilding there is a risk of the pyrite seeping into the new blocks, which would have an impact. That is why we have to keep the scheme under review, which is exactly what we...

Seanad: Nithe i dtosach suíonna - Commencement Matters: Renewable Energy Generation (16 Oct 2025)

Christopher O'Sullivan: It is really refreshing and encouraging to hear the agreement that we need to push for clean, renewable energy. I totally take the Senator's point on the need for guidelines to be brought forward as quickly as possible. The Programme for Government 2025 - Securing Ireland’s Future reaffirms Ireland’s ambitious targets of 8 GW of solar capacity connected to the grid by 2030...

Seanad: Nithe i dtosach suíonna - Commencement Matters: Renewable Energy Generation (16 Oct 2025)

Christopher O'Sullivan: I appreciate the Senator's approach. He is clearly indicating that we need more renewables and is simply asking that there are guidelines in order that we can avoid a lot of the stress and strain that has been caused in different communities. That is still happening to an extent. These developments can be quite daunting for many smaller communities. It is such an alien concept to have...

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: National Parks and Wildlife Service (15 Oct 2025)

Christopher O'Sullivan: The contract for the detailed risk assessment work undertaken in 2014 was with Inland Fisheries Ireland (IFI) and the National Biodiversity Data Centre (NBDC) co-partnered delivery of the work. At the time, 42 of the species listed on the Third Schedule to the 2011 Regulations (SI 477/2011) were for risk assessment as they were known to be traded species (including Chub and Carp). For an...

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: National Parks and Wildlife Service (15 Oct 2025)

Christopher O'Sullivan: The Owenriff lies between two special areas of conservation: Lough Corrib SAC (Site Code: 000297) which includes salmon, brook lamprey, river lamprey and sea lamprey in its qualifying interests, and Connemara Bog Complex SAC (Site Code: 002034) which also includes salmon in its qualifying interests. Inland Fisheries Ireland are the competent authority for fin fish species under the...

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Departmental Data (15 Oct 2025)

Christopher O'Sullivan: The Irish Wetland Bird Survey (I-WeBS) has an open and freely accessible online data platform where data collected under the programme can be readily viewed and downloaded. This platform currently hosts data from 2011/12 to 2019/2020, inclusive. Data from other years can be readily requested by submitting a data request form, details of which are available at the following website: . The...

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Departmental Data (15 Oct 2025)

Christopher O'Sullivan: The Irish Wetland Bird Survey (I-WeBS) is Ireland’s national programme for monitoring population trends of wintering waterbirds and the habitats they use. The survey has been running for over 30 years. The I-WeBS count surveys are completed by the National Parks and Wildlife Service (NPWS), by professional staff of the survey service provider (under contract) and by a network of...

Housing Finance Agency (Amendment) Bill 2025: Second Stage (14 Oct 2025)

Christopher O'Sullivan: I thank all the Deputies who have made contributions in the House over the last while. A lot of them summarised some of the challenges we face, including the need to urgently ramp up supply, quite well. There is clearly a common theme among Deputies' contributions, that is, a desire to make housing affordable, to increase supply and to reduce and eventually end homelessness. That has come...

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: National Parks and Wildlife Service (14 Oct 2025)

Christopher O'Sullivan: Significant work has been undertaken over the last six months to develop a robust draft land use planning framework to strategically manage the conservation of Light Bellied Brent Geese in the four Dublin local authority areas. Dublin City Council has coordinated inputs from the Dublin local authorities and the OPW in these efforts, with the additional support of the National Parks and...

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Heritage Sites (14 Oct 2025)

Christopher O'Sullivan: The Historic and Archaeological Heritage and Miscellaneous Provisions Act 2023 (the Act) was passed by both Houses of the Oireachtas, and enacted on 13 October 2023. While the Act is now law, its provisions are being brought into force on a phased basis, by way of a series of Commencement Orders. When fully commenced, the Act will introduce a range of measures designed to bolster the...