Written Answers Nos. 164 -169
164. Deputy Robert Troy asked the Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government when Westmeath County Council and Longford County Council will receive their budget allocation under the housing adaptation grant scheme and the housing aid for the elderly for 2016. [2483/16]
View answerLast year Exchequer funding of over €40 million was made available to local authorities for the Housing Adaptation Grants for Older People and People with a Disability. I expect to be in a position to increase that funding for 2016 and the allocations to individual local authorities will issue shortly.
165. Deputy Sean Fleming asked the Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government when he will publish statutory guidelines in relation to the location of wind turbines; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [2484/16]
View answerIn December 2013, my Department published proposed “draft” revisions to the noise, setback distance and shadow flicker aspects of the 2006 Wind Energy Development Guidelines. These draft revisions proposed:
- the setting of a more stringent day and night noise limit of 40 decibels for future wind energy developments,
- a mandatory minimum setback distance of 500 metres between a wind turbine and the nearest dwelling for amenity considerations, and
- the complete elimination of shadow flicker between wind turbines and neighbouring dwellings.
A public consultation process was initiated on these proposed draft revisions to the Guidelines, which ran until 21 February 2014. My Department received submissions from 7,500 organisations and members of the public during this public consultation process. It is intended that the revisions to the 2006 Wind Energy Development Guidelines will be finalised as soon as possible. In this regard, account has to be taken of the extensive response to the public consultation in framing the final guidelines. Further work is also advancing to develop technical appendices to assist planning authorities with the practical application of the noise measurement aspects of the Wind Guidelines. My Department is advancing work on the Guidelines in conjunction with the Department of Communications, Energy and Natural Resources.
The revisions to the Wind Energy Development Guidelines 2006, when finalised, will be issued under Section 28 of the Planning and Development Act 2000, as amended. Planning authorities, and, where applicable, An Bord Pleanála are required to have regard to guidelines issued under Section 28 in the performance of their functions under the Planning Acts.
166. Deputy Sean Fleming asked the Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government the allocation from his Department for social housing to Laois County Council for each year since 2011; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [2485/16]
View answerDetails of funding provided to Laois County Council under the primary social housing support programmes for the years 2011 to 2015 inclusive are set out in the following Table.
|
- |
CAPITAL |
CAPITAL |
CAPITAL |
CAPITAL |
CAPITAL |
CAPITAL |
CURRENT |
CURRENT |
CURRENT |
|
Laois County Council |
LA Build / Acquisition €m |
Voluntary Housing Capital Assistance Scheme €m |
Traveller Accommodation & Support €m |
Regeneration/ Remedial Works €m |
Energy Efficiency /Retrofitting €m |
Private House Grants €m |
Social Housing Current Expenditure Programme €m |
Rental Accommodation Scheme €m |
Accommodation for Homelessness €m |
|
2011 |
4.662 |
0.346 |
0.004 |
0.383 |
0.391 |
0.936 |
0.454 |
1.050 |
0.008 |
|
2012 |
1.611 |
0.695 |
0.218 |
0.107 |
0.219 |
0.868 |
0.551 |
1.115 |
0.004 |
|
2013 |
0.608 |
0.142 |
0.675 |
0.102 |
0.483 |
0.429 |
0.617 |
1.108 |
0.003 |
|
2014 |
3.645 |
0.322 |
0.06 |
0.054 |
1.011 |
0.705 |
0.704 |
1.090 |
0 |
|
2015 |
3.811 |
0.850 |
0.031 |
0.118 |
0.617 |
0.591 |
0.586 |
1.066 |
0 |
167. Deputy Finian McGrath asked the Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government to support a family (details supplied) in Dublin 9 with a major housing issue; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [2488/16]
View answerThe processing of applications for social housing support, and the allocation of that support, is solely a matter for the housing authority concerned, in this case Dublin City Council. As current housing legislation specifically precludes me as Minister from intervening in individual housing cases, it would not be appropriate for me to become involved in the case concerned. However, I would urge the household in question to maintain regular contact with Dublin City Council and to ensure that the Council has all the relevant and up to date information required to inform its decision making in this case. With regard to a notice to quit, the Residential Tenancies Act 2004 regulates the landlord-tenant relationship in the private rented residential sector and sets out the rights and obligations of landlords and tenants relating to, inter alia, security of tenure and the termination of tenancies. Under the Act, a tenancy terminates on the death of the tenant, except in certain limited circumstances which are set out in section 39 of the Act. The PRTB website www.prtb.ie has extensive information for both tenants and landlords explaining their rights, responsibilities and obligations, including notice periods before termination of a tenancy.
168. Deputy Michael Healy-Rae asked the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources the status of the introduction of a renewable heat initiative (details supplied) in County Kerry; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [2501/16]
View answerI published the The Energy White Paper 'Ireland's Transition to a Low Carbon Energy Future 2015-2030' on 16 December last. The White Paper sets out a high-level framework for Ireland's energy transition to a low carbon economy and society and identifies a range of measures and actions to support this aim. One key measure is the design of a new renewable heat incentive (RHI) support scheme in 2016 for a range of renewable generation technologies in the heating sector. The RHI will be a national renewable support scheme open to participants across the country subject to a range of criteria that will be published when the scheme becomes available at the end of 2016. The first of three public consultations on the design of the new renewable heat incentive was published in July 2015. The initial phase of this consultation process, which closed on 18 September 2015, was designed to review the technology options that may be supported by any new scheme.
There will be two additional public consultation phases in 2016. The second phase in the consultation process will explore the potential design options for the structure of the support scheme, while the final phase will seek feedback on the preferred design option and implementation. These consultation phases will give interested parties further opportunities to participate in the development of the support scheme. Details will be advertised on the Department’s website www.dcenr.gov.ie in 2016.
It is expected that the new scheme will be announced towards the end of this year subject to Government approval and State aid clearance from the European Commission.
169. Deputy Sean Fleming asked the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources his plans to improve broadband services in County Laois; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [2482/16]
View answerThe Government’s National Broadband Plan (NBP) aims to ensure that every citizen and business, regardless of location, has access to a high quality, high speed broadband service. This will be achieved through a combination of commercial investments and a State led intervention in areas where commercial services will not be provided. The commercial telecommunications sector is currently investing approximately €2.5 billion in network upgrades and enhanced services. These very significant investments represent a step change in the quality of broadband services available.
On the 22 December 2015, I formally launched the procurement process for the State Intervention to provide high quality, high speed broadband to all premises in Ireland that may not be served through commercial investment. The formal procurement commenced with the publication of the Project Information Memorandum and the Pre-Qualification Questionnaire. In addition, my Department also published:
- the National Intervention Strategy – updated in December 2015, which takes account of responses to the public consultation which took place in July 2015 and subsequent expert analysis; and
- the High Speed Broadband Map 2020 which follows ongoing engagement with industry and public consultation.
The Intervention strategy sets out a detailed service specification including a requirement that the State-funded network must be capable of delivering high-quality, high speed broadband of at least 30mbps download and 6mbps upload. It must also be capable of catering for higher performance in the future so as to keep pace with consumer demand. It is therefore a matter for bidders to select the technology which will show how they propose to meet these contractual requirements.
The 2020 map is available at www.broadband.gov.ie. The map shows Ireland with two colours, BLUE and AMBER. The areas marked BLUE represent those areas where commercial providers are either currently delivering or have plans to deliver high speed broadband services by the end of 2016. The areas marked AMBER represent the target areas for the proposed State intervention. Members of the public can see whether their individual premises is in the BLUE or AMBER area by inserting their Eircode, and-or address, or scrolling through the map.
The Government is determined to ensure that the network is built out as quickly as possible and engagement with industry stakeholders has indicated that this could be achieved within 3-5 years of the contract award.
In this context, the NBP proposes that through the combination of commercial investment and State intervention, 85% of addresses in Ireland will have access to high speed services by 2018, with all addresses passed by 2020.
More generally, I am informed by the commercial operators that next generation broadband services have been rolled out to over almost 15,000 premises to date in County Laois with over 5,500 more expected to be serviced by commercial investment. Over 16,000 remaining premises in County Laois will be covered either by further commercial investment or the proposed State intervention.
