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626. Deputy Brian Stanley asked the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage his plans to increase the threshold to allow qualification for social housing in various local authorities; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [17040/25]

632. Deputy Paul Murphy asked the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage whether the Government intends to increase funding for the Energy Efficiency Retrofitting Programme for local authority housing in 2025 in light of inflation and rising construction costs, to ensure that retrofit targets can be met without scaling back ambition or delaying works; and if he will make a statement o…

633. Deputy Paul Murphy asked the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage in light of the ESRI report "Exploring Investment Requirements for Energy Efficiency Upgrades in the Private Rental Sector", which underscores the scale of investment needed and the challenges specific to the rental sector, when the Government intends to implement the minimum BER standard for private rental prope…

634. Deputy Paul Murphy asked the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage in light of the ESRI estimate that €7-8 billion will be required to bring private rental housing up to a B2 energy rating, how the Government intends on meeting this investment need, and whether a funding strategy is being developed to ensure the rollout of minimum BER standards proceeds on schedule, while ensuri…

639. Deputy Pat the Cope Gallagher asked the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage Housing the number of applications received from Donegal County Council each year since the tenant-in-situ scheme was introduced; the number approved, and number awaiting approval; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [17340/25]

640. Deputy Pat the Cope Gallagher asked the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage why the tenant-in-situ scheme no longer provides funding for refurbishment of houses; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [17341/25]

645. Deputy Eoin Ó Broin asked the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage the capital allocations for social housing acquisitions for 2025 for each local authority, in tabular form. [17528/25]

242. Deputy Conor D. McGuinness asked the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage the numbers approved for social housing supports in each local authority, broken down by number of bedrooms approved, in tabular form. [16396/25]

245. Deputy Eoin Ó Broin asked the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage to provide a breakdown of the €325 million capital funding for social housing acquisitions announced by the Minister on 31 March, by local authority area, in tabular form; and to confirm that this funding is additional to the funding detailed in the revised estimate for public services published by the Departmen…

246. Deputy Eoin Ó Broin asked the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage to provide an updated estimate for sub heads A4, A7, A11, A236 and A31 following the announcement of an additional €436 million in capital funding for social and affordable housing announced on 31 March 2025. [16422/25]

247. Deputy Eoin Ó Broin asked the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage for a copy of the circular on social housing acquisitions issued to local authorities alongside the capital allocations for acquisitions announced on 31 March 2025. [16423/25]

172. Deputy Cathal Crowe asked the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage the funding allocated for social housing acquisitions to each local authority in each year 2020 to 2024 inclusive; and the amount of the allocation spent in each year and the amount unspent/carried over to the following year, in tabular form; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [16450/25]

175. Deputy Rory Hearne asked the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage further to Parliamentary Question No. 476 of 25 March 2025, the current status of the acquisition delivery team to ensure each local authority meets its tenant-in-situ purchase targets; the work the team undertook to meet these targets in 2023 and 2024; the guidelines issued to local authorities and the Housing A…

177. Deputy Seán Ó Fearghaíl asked the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage if he will indicate how he considers it just that a local authority tenant may have the opportunity to purchase their home whereas the tenant of an approved housing body (AHB) under the current system has no such opportunity even if the managing AHB is willing to facilitate tenant purchases (details supplied…

178. Deputy Seán Ó Fearghaíl asked the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage if he will indicate the total amount of State funding provided to approved housing bodies in Q1 of 2023, 2024, and to date in 2025, in tabular form; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [16132/25]

449. Deputy Mattie McGrath asked the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage in relation to the current situation with the section 179A planning exemption that replaced the part 8 process for social housing approvals, if this planning process for local authorities has been or will be extended; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [14982/25]

459. Deputy Peter 'Chap' Cleere asked the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage if plans are in place to review the current tenant purchase scheme and reduce the period of time tenants are required to be in receipt of social housing support to be considered eligible under the scheme; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [15129/25]

460. Deputy Eoin Ó Broin asked the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage the capital allocations for social housing acquisitions for 2025, in tabular form. [15139/25]

463. Deputy Albert Dolan asked the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage to provide data on the total amount spent on the housing assistance payment in each of the past five years, in tabular form. [15235/25]

464. Deputy Albert Dolan asked the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage to provide data on the total amount spent on housing assistance payment in each of the past five years, by year and the local authority where the recipients are situated, in tabular form. [15236/25]

465. Deputy Albert Dolan asked the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage to provide data on the total amount spent on subventions to approved housing bodies, including funding under the capital assistance scheme and capital advance leasing facility, in each of the past five years, in tabular form. [15237/25]

466. Deputy Albert Dolan asked the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage to provide data on the total amount spent on social housing delivery in each of the past five years, by year and category, including spending on new builds, acquisitions, refurbishments and leasing schemes, in tabular form. [15238/25]

467. Deputy Albert Dolan asked the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage to provide data on the total amount spent on the Land Development Agency, including operational costs, land acquisition and housing development, in each of the past five years, in tabular form. [15239/25]

468. Deputy Albert Dolan asked the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage to provide data on the total funding allocated to the Land Development Agency (LDA) in each of the past five years, in tabular form; and the number of housing units delivered through LDA projects, per year. [15240/25]

470. Deputy Albert Dolan asked the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage to provide links to official reports, documents, and published datasets detailing the total funding allocated to the Land Development Agency (LDA) in each of the past three years; and to provide reports outlining the number of housing units delivered through LDA projects, per year. [15242/25]

Míle buíochas leis an Teachta Gogarty as ucht an Bhille seo a thabhairt os comhair na Dála. I welcome and thank the Alliance of Birth Mothers Campaigning for Justice for all the work it has done on this issue in recent years. One of the most difficult cases that regularly comes into my office is when a child is taken from their family or parents. That is because the act of forcibly separating a c…

I welcome our Polish community and also a group of students who are with me from Trinity and schools in Dublin and Wexford. Far too many people in Ireland suffer the trauma of losing their home. That is a direct result of the Government's policy. It prioritises the market over people. It did it in March, incentivising landlords to evict with new rent laws, and it is doing it again now, this week …

Absolutely, and that is what we are doing. We are legislating in terms of Airbnbs in any area above 20,000 people. That is a very significant change, and rightly so because the priority is housing. Our priority is housing and will remain housing. There is an issue of balance here in terms of the proposal and this would be a major step forward when we bring in this legislation-----

I recognise the improvements that have been made to this Bill since we last debated it in this House, both by our colleagues in the Seanad and through the moves the Minister of State has made. It is important to recognise when positive steps are taken. While we may not agree on everything politically, it does not mean that we ignore where we do agree on some things that have changed. I will speak…

I support both the motion and what has been put forward. However, there is a need to raise certain issues in relation to the scheme. There are limitations to the scheme, and a number of questions remain to be asked, specifically in respect of the take-up and why only 435 houses that were built using defective blocks, or around 13% of 3,500 homes, have had the remediation work completed. Why has th…

Deputies all over this House were advocating for this long before Progress Ireland was ever established. There have been cases in rural Ireland where people have had difficulties with extensions and buildings in their back gardens, fields, or whatever they were attached to, including farmhouses and so on. There is a balance here. The Deputy has opposed every single measure to do with supply of hou…

Is the clearing house just looking at projects currently in the planning system or is it looking at upcoming projects in the south coast DMAP area? Is it looking at future DMAPs? How is it approaching its work and what barriers are there? How is the clearing house resourced in the context of staff? Does it have enough people who have enough time available to them? Does it have an international foc…

Deputy Crowe opened proceedings with a heartfelt plea for the mid-west in the aftermath of having met with the Limerick Chamber of Commerce. I outlined earlier the progress that we have made in terms of auctions, planning permissions and applications that are in progress. I would be positive about this but, obviously, we have to work on the port there in terms of it being ready and capable and hav…

I welcome the opportunity today to speak on the Our Rural Future policy consultation. Over the last number of years I have been involved in and seen the positive impact that investment in rural places can have on towns, villages and rural communities throughout Kildare South. We are seeing investment in places like Athy, with Emily Square and the Shackleton Experience which the Minister was down t…

Gabhaim buíochas leis na Teachtaí go léir tráthnóna inniu. Cé nach bhfuilimid ar aon intinn ar gach rud, is léir nach bhfuil ach dea-rún ag gach duine anseo i leith thodhchaí níos dóchasaí a chruthú do cheantair agus do mhuintir thuaithe na hÉireann. Is ceart - agus tá sé soiléir - go bhfuil bród ag gach duine as a gceantair thuaithe, as ár n-oidhreacht thuaithe agus go háirithe as ár bpobal tuait…

I welcome all the unions in the Gallery today and thank them for their ongoing work in standing up for workers' rights. I acknowledge the Northern Ireland Minister for the economy, Sinn Féin's Caoimhe Archibald MLA, who is currently proposing a good jobs Bill in the North of Ireland, which represents the most significant workers' rights legislation. As we approach May Day, we are reminded that th…

Across many metrics, the Government is failing to address the challenges to our competitiveness and what we are hearing back from businesses. The housing crisis has worsened, with record rents and with homelessness at a record high. Employers are asking us where their workers will live. They have nowhere to live. I am a member of the Joint Committee on Enterprise, Tourism and Employment, which has…

I will make two points quite clearly. In relation to affordable homes, that is the sort of prioritisation the LDA should be looking for. I am more than happy to bring this point forward on the Deputy’s behalf to the Minister. Perhaps there will be scope for further discussion at the next round of oral parliamentary questions. The Deputy has raised a point that is not being raised enough in relati…

I thank Deputies for their contributions to this debate, particularly those Deputies who indicated their support for my motion. In the effort to try to find a bit of common ground among Deputies who disagreed, I was delighted to hear Deputy Michael Collins speak about supporting one of his constituents who is trying to move transport and heavy goods vehicles, HGVs, onto a battery source. I recomme…

I sometimes wonder if this Government has the ability not to make a mess of everything. This Bill should be the most uncontroversial legislation to come before this House because there is political unanimity that children should not have access to vaping products, that there should be strong penalties for those who allow children access to such products, and that we should completely ban products …

Let us have an honest debate where we can agree and disagree on the facts and let us not make up stuff that does not have any basis from a factual point of view. In terms of the surplus, I repeat that is going into the funds, such as the Future Ireland Fund and the infrastructure and nature fund. The Ireland Strategic Investment Fund, ISIF, manages that and it is being invested in a whole range o…

Last year the Minister of State, Deputy John Cummins, was clear. Modular units in people's back gardens would not be available for rent on the private market. He said: "I don't see this as a rental measure. I see it as facilitating intergenerational movement." There was broad agreement across the Opposition. These units could help families and they should but opening them up to the private rental …

We will keep it under review. We will look at every single way we can ease pressure on people, ease pressure on the private rental market and also give opportunities to people. We will follow up with guidelines for rural housing. We have a crisis with housing but we will never solve it if we criticise every single measure that a Government introduces, which the Social Democrats have been doing for…

I was out in Dublin Central last evening with Councillor John Stephens, and it was a very pleasant evening indeed. There was good feedback and a lot of issues raised, of course, on the doorsteps. Yes, approval has been given to the expected appointment of Robert Watt as CEO, seconded to the special purpose vehicle. The SPV is a key legal vehicle to ensure not only the implementation of the task f…

I do not want to get into specific interventions in terms of mixed tenure or the approach at any given site of the LDA. We have indicated to the LDA that it can do more than social and affordable housing and move into the private-provision area as well to get a broader mix. It is a very good development, with 779 homes. Many big developments are now coming under the aegis of the LDA. It really is …

Deputy John Connolly was the first to ask a question. The schools therapy programme is working well. On the issue of the single point of access, the HSE has embarked on the idea of a one-door approach. The outgoing CEO, Bernard Gloster, was very focused on this. All last year at the Cabinet subcommittee on disability, he gave a very clear undertaking on behalf of the HSE that there would be a sing…

I thank Deputy Nash for his comment on the deemed disposal rule. I agree that there is, rightly, a lot of debate in this House about the rate of it. He made the broader point about the purpose it serves - or does not serve - any more. We need to have a substantive examination of what the policy intent was and if it is still valid today. The truth is that I do not believe it is. How do we unwind th…

I believed the Ministers when they told me several times in this Chamber that they would work with me. I believed them when they said several times that they had the solutions. I believed the NCSE. I believed lots of people but that might be my political naivety. I am really disappointed. I have come to the Ministers several times both here and outside the Chamber, the committee has been on to the…

Exactly. What we can do is work with an approved housing body, AHB, to build that residential. The HSE is for delivery of healthcare and we try to make it work as well as we can but here are the things we are not: we are not a transport company and we do not build homes. What we can do is partner with AHBs to make sure we are developing long-term residential that is adjacent and appropriate for ne…

I thank Deputy Gallagher for raising this issue in the House. He represents a constituency and county that was very badly impacted by defective blocks. He has championed and represented the people in his constituency for many years, fought for the remediation scheme and continuously fought for the side-by-side construction amendment. The good news is that the regulations on side-by-side construct…