Questions

606. Deputy Ken O'Flynn asked the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage the steps his Department has taken since 2022 to establish a residential-specific productivity baseline for use in housing policy formation, including any internal memoranda, assessment frameworks or technical guidance issued to inform national housing targets. [72307/25]

607. Deputy Ken O'Flynn asked the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage whether his Department has conducted any assessment of the budgetary or value-for-money risks arising from the absence of residential-specific productivity indicators in the construction sector; and the outcomes of any such assessment. [72308/25]

608. Deputy Ken O'Flynn asked the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage the date on which his Department last requested the Central Statistics Office to examine residential construction productivity separately from other construction activity; and to provide details of any technical workstreams, consultations or data-sharing arrangements agreed since 2022. [72309/25]

609. Deputy Ken O'Flynn asked the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage the dates on which the Housing Activation Office submitted reports to him since 1 January 2023 identifying infrastructure barriers to housing delivery; the number of barriers escalated; and the number that remain unresolved following those reports. [72310/25]

610. Deputy Ken O'Flynn asked the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage the categories of infrastructure barriers escalated to him by the Housing Activation Office since 2023, including transport, utilities, water services, planning or procurement; and the corrective actions his Department has directed in each case. [72311/25]

611. Deputy Ken O'Flynn asked the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage the timeline his Department has set for publishing a consolidated annual report of housing activation barriers, actions and progress; and whether this report will include local-authority-level detail. [72312/25]

439. Deputy Ken O'Flynn asked the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage the number and type of sanctions imposed by the Property Services Regulatory Authority on licensed property services providers following anti-money-laundering compliance audits in each of the past five years; the number of cautions, formal directions, financial penalties, licence suspensions, licence revocations and referrals to An …

440. Deputy Ken O'Flynn asked the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage to outline the escalation procedures the Property Services Regulatory Authority is required to follow where an audit identifies that a property sale completed without the customer due diligence or identity verification required under the Criminal Justice (Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing) Act 2010; whether the Department has…

441. Deputy Ken O'Flynn asked the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage the risk model used by the Property Services Regulatory Authority to select property services providers for anti-money-laundering audits; the proportion of high-risk licensees subject to more frequent inspections than the standard five-year cycle; and whether the current model aligns with the property sector risk profile in the Nati…

442. Deputy Ken O'Flynn asked the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage the staffing levels and specialist expertise available within the Property Services Regulatory Authority for anti-money-laundering supervision; the number of inspectors assigned to AML audit work in each year since 2021; the specialist AML training completed by those inspectors; and whether additional staffing or expert support will…

443. Deputy Ken O'Flynn asked the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage how he reconciles the identification of only three non-compliant businesses out of 1,761 anti-money-laundering audits in the period 2021 to 2025 with the risk profile for the property sector set out in the National Risk Assessment for Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing; whether his Department has reviewed the PSRA’s audit meth…

444. Deputy Ken O'Flynn asked the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage the additional supervisory powers and sanctioning tools he expects the Property Services Regulatory Authority to gain following implementation of the 6th Anti-Money Laundering Directive; the legislative timeline; and how these reforms will alter the Authority’s approach to repeated or serious non-compliance by property services prov…

446. Deputy Ken O'Flynn asked the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage whether his Department holds disaggregated information on residential property purchases by non resident and non EEA buyers, including number and value of transactions by local authority area, price band and property type since 2020; whether he will arrange for publication of this information on a regular basis in line with existing…

447. Deputy Ken O'Flynn asked the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage whether he intends to bring forward proposals for a public register of beneficial ownership for residential and commercial property in the State, including properties held through overseas companies or trusts; the status of any scoping work underway with relevant Departments and agencies on such a register; the expected timeline for…

215. Deputy Ken O'Flynn asked the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage the average and median statutory decision making times recorded in An Coimisiún Pleanála for each of the past five years for planning appeals, strategic housing developments, large scale residential developments and strategic infrastructure cases, in tabular form; and to confirm the year-on-year change in each category as held by hi…

216. Deputy Ken O'Flynn asked the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage the number and proportion of planning appeal cases, large scale residential development cases and strategic infrastructure cases in each of the past five years that did not meet their statutory decision timeframes; and to provide the Department’s analysis of the principal factors contributing to breaches of timelines. [70398/25]

217. Deputy Ken O'Flynn asked the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage the current performance monitoring framework his Department uses to assess the operational output and decision timelines of An Coimisiún Pleanála, including the specific indicators tracked, the reporting schedule, and any interventions or support actions taken by his Department in response to identified underperformance. [70399/25]

218. Deputy Ken O'Flynn asked the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage to provide the commencement schedule for each section of the Planning and Development Act 2024 relating to An Coimisiún Pleanála, including the expected dates for the introduction of statutory time periods, the new appeals processes, and the implementation of the section 588 declaration requirements. [70400/25]

219. Deputy Ken O'Flynn asked the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage the resourcing plan agreed between his Department and An Coimisiún Pleanála for 2024 and 2025, including sanctioned staffing levels, the number of posts filled, the number unfilled, the recruitment timeline for remaining sanctioned posts; and his Department’s assessment of whether current staffing is adequate to meet statutory decis…

220. Deputy Ken O'Flynn asked the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage to detail his Department’s assessment of the impact of judicial review volumes on planning decision timelines in An Coimisiún Pleanála over the past five years, including data on the number of judicial review (JR) cases initiated each year; the proportion relating to housing or infrastructure; and his Department’s analysis of the ex…

221. Deputy Ken O'Flynn asked the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage to confirm whether his Department holds internal performance reviews, audits or risk assessments regarding the operational capacity of An Coimisiún Pleanála; and the findings from the most recent reviews relating to governance, output, and decision making delays. [70403/25]

222. Deputy Ken O'Flynn asked the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage his Department’s role in ensuring consistency of decision making timelines across planning authorities and An Coimisiún Pleanála; and the cross-agency coordination mechanisms which exist to identify systemic causes of delay and to implement corrective actions. [70405/25]

223. Deputy Ken O'Flynn asked the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage his Department’s current governance oversight arrangements for An Coimisiún Pleanála, including reporting obligations, performance metrics, compliance assessments and the measures used by his Department to ensure that statutory timeframes, once commenced, are met in practice. [70406/25]

224. Deputy Ken O'Flynn asked the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage the measures in Delivering Homes, Building Communities 2025–2030 that deal with delayed hospital discharges for older people and disabled persons who are medically fit for discharge but unable to leave due to housing shortages; and the delivery timelines attached to these measures. [70418/25]

225. Deputy Ken O'Flynn asked the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage if his Department has set annual output targets in Delivering Homes, Building Communities for the provision of housing suitable for older people and disabled persons transitioning from hospitals or nursing homes; and if so, the targets for 2025, 2026, and 2027. [70424/25]