James Browne

You have to respect people's right. You do not have to like what I have to say but you should allow me to say it.

I thank Deputy McGrath for raising this important question about the key measures I and the Government will be taking to support first-time buyers under Delivering Homes, Building Communities 2025-2030. I thank the Deputy for his regular engagement on this important issue for his constituents. The Government’s new housing plan, Delivering Homes, Building Communities 2025-2030 sets out a broad rang…

Scheme criteria and support levels for affordable purchase schemes are kept under regular review, taking account of developments in the housing market. It is a complex and dynamic situation to ensure that we can provide the necessary affordable supports for people to be able to purchase their homes without affecting the market and driving up the cost of delivery and affordability on people. I hear…

Again, I thank Deputy Séamus McGrath for raising the concerns around affordability, in particular around Cork city and Cork county. As I said, these schemes will continue to be kept under review to ensure that there are those affordability mechanisms in place and that people in Cork can afford to access the starter homes programme on an equal and equitable level with the rest of the country.

You do not want to listen to the answer.

I thank Deputy Séamus McGrath for taking this question on the increase in social housing availability on behalf of Deputy Willie O'Dea. Since the beginning of 2022, Government has supported the delivery of 35,163 new social homes across thousands of individual projects funded through build, acquisition and leasing programmes. Building on progress made to date, delivering homes, building communiti…

The absolute priority for me, the Department and the Government is to maximise new builds. That is where we want to be at and, after that, forward-funded schemes to deliver homes where perhaps there is planning permission but which may not otherwise be built. We need to move away from pure turnkey as much and as quickly as possible. A key part of this delivery is the local authority new-build team…

Meeting our social housing targets is absolutely crucial. Meeting them through new builds is best practice and that is where we want to expand as quickly as possible. However, we need local authorities to lead on their own-build programmes as well because that builds resilience into the system no matter what the economic situation may be to ensure that there is not a reliance of delivery through P…

I again thank Deputy Séamus McGrath for asking this question on behalf of Deputy Peter 'Chap' Cleere. I propose to take Questions Nos. 7, 64 and 99 together. The new national housing plan contains a range of actions to increase skills and support modern methods of construction, building on the initiatives already in place. MMC is the term used to describe a range of compliant innovative construct…

I thank the Deputy for the important question on MMC. A dissemination programme is currently being developed by my Department and the Department of Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science to promote the use of these approaches in the education and construction sectors. These standardised designs build on my Department's existing design manual for quality housing, for example…

We will support a number of 3D volumetric pathfinder projects to further explore the potential for these innovative systems. Using MMC, Limerick City and County Council and the mayor’s office will be supported to advance the initial phase of their SMART modular housing project. In addition, Wexford County Council is being supported to commence a project to develop 22 permanent social homes utilisi…

The programme for Government sets out a number of priorities for the Government relating to access to early learning and childcare services, including a commitment to review the 2001 Childcare Facilities Guidelines for Planning Authorities to ensure childcare spaces are provided and put to use. Further to the commencement of Chapter 3 of Part 3 of the Planning and Development Act 2024, on 2 Octobe…

I thank the Deputy. I am aware that she has spoken about this on many occasions in the Chamber, including with the Minister, Deputy Foley. She is quite consistent in raising the importance of childcare facilities. I can assure her that the Minister and her Department are actively engaging on this. I will meet the Minister, Deputy Foley, in the next week on this matter to see how we can further the…

I again thank Deputy Currie for raising the important matter of childcare facilities. I agree that it is timely and in accordance with the programme for Government that we update the planning guidelines. As I said, we will work with the Department of children. Ultimately, it is the Department of children that will work out the policy on this area. The national planning statements will form an impo…

I propose to take Questions Nos. 10, 92 and 120 together. I thank Deputy O'Connor for this important question on planning guidelines for solar farms for local authorities. The section of the programme for Government on securing Ireland's future reaffirms Ireland's ambitious targets of 8 GW of solar capacity connected to the grid by 2030, to assist with meeting the requirement of 80% of electricit…

I certainly hear the Deputy's concerns. Any proposals forthcoming from the Government will be subject to public consultation and consultation with stakeholders, very much including the agricultural community and rural villages. However, in the absence of national planning statements, it falls back to the first principles of planning law, including the relevant Acts, but also the county development…

On the question of smaller extensions, etc., we are working on a very extensive suite of planning exemptions. I very much recognise that people should have more power to deliver and work on their own local property without having to seek planning permission. That is why we are introducing those exemptions. It is very much not a case of passing the parcel. The reality is that county development pla…

The Deputy's question was about plans to investigate the rate of home vacancy around the country, and that is the question I will answer. Data on vacant properties is available from a number of sources, such as the Central Statistics Office, data from census 2022 and GeoDirectory. My Department has been engaging with the national statistical institute, the Central Statistics Office, which has rece…

I accept that these people are in an extraordinarily difficult situation, which I have no doubt is quite traumatic for them. As the Deputy knows, this matter is now going through a legal process. I cannot comment on individual cases but in any situation, we always have to look at what is happening, take learnings from it and see if there are ways we could strengthen our laws, be it within the Dep…

What has happened with these families in a situation of a liquidation process is that there is a ranking of priority within that and they have found themselves very much on the wrong end of it. What I can undertake, albeit not in this specific case because, as I said, it is going through a current legal process, and with the principles being realised out of this situation, I will speak to the Mini…

I propose to take Questions Nos. 14, 39, 85, 532 and 533 together. My Department is currently undertaking a focused review of the 2006 wind energy development guidelines which will inform a new national planning statement on wind energy under the new Planning and Development Act 2024. The review is addressing a number of key aspects of the guidelines including noise, setback distance, shadow flic…

I thank both Deputies for their input in relation to the matter. In relation to my time in the Department of housing, there has been significant engagement with the Department of the environment in terms of developing the wider issues around the guidelines and in relation to updating them through the national planning statements. These are very technical in nature. They are very complex. There is …

I thank the Deputies for their concerns. There is a very large number of national planning statements that are now required over the coming years. Providing one under wind energy is a priority for the Department of housing, but as I said, many of the key principles are also within the Department of environment. We are continuing to work with it. It is about finding that balance where we can delive…

One thing I note is how often somebody tells there is something is on my desk when my desk is empty. It seems to be a term of art that something has arrived at the Department of housing somewhere. I can assure the Deputy that the Housing Agency received test results from the properties sampled in Fingal. I have received the final report from the Housing Agency. It literally was on my desk this wee…

I reiterate it will be literally within days.