Written Answers Nos. 288-301
288. Deputy Ruth Coppinger asked the Minister for Housing, Planning and Local Government if the opportunity of legislation relating to the European Parliament constituencies will be used to amend the Electoral Act 1992 to ensure that United Kingdom nationals resident here will be entitled to vote in the European Parliament election in May 2019; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [47263/18]
View answerA decision on the number of representatives to be elected to the European Parliament in each Member State for the 2019-2024 parliamentary term was made by the European Council on 28 June 2018. Council Decision (EU) 2018/937 provides for 13 members to be elected in Ireland for the 2019-2024 parliamentary term. This necessitated a review of European Parliament constituencies in Ireland and, in this regard, I made an order establishing a European Parliament Constituency Committee on 24 July 2018 to make a report in accordance with the requirements of Part II of the Electoral Act 1997. The Committee presented its report to the Ceann Comhairle on 24 September 2018 after which it was laid before both Houses of the Oireachtas.
Now that the Committee has reported with its recommendations, I intend to bring legislative proposals to Government shortly to amend our Electoral Acts in order to give effect to the recommendations in the Report on European Parliament Constituencies 2018 and to make such other amendments as may be necessary for the holding of the European Parliament elections in 2019, details of which will be published in due course.
289. Deputy Sean Sherlock asked the Minister for Housing, Planning and Local Government if all refund cheques issued to Irish Water customers have been credited to their accounts; if not, the amount outstanding on Irish Water bank balances in respect of refunds; and the status of same. [47302/18]
View answerIn keeping with the spirit of the provisions for the refund of domestic water charges under the Water Services Act 2017, and the earlier recommendations of the Joint Oireachtas Committee on the Future Funding of Domestic Water Services on this matter, all reasonable efforts continue to be made to refund in full the amounts due to relevant domestic customers of Irish Water.
My Department provided funding of €177,535,103 to Irish Water in 2017 to cover the costs involved in refunding some 995,000 domestic customers who had paid water charges in full or in part. This included a provision of €5,869,630 for administration costs.
On 31 July 2018 Irish Water returned €6.51m of this funding to Government based on €5.17m in respect of customers where data inadequacies had prevented refunds being made, and €1.34m in respect of cheques that were cancelled and not yet reissued. These figures were based on reconciliations up to 25 July 2018.
As of 31 October 2018, there were 71,109 cheques to a total value of €9.03m which have been issued but not cashed (this includes the €1.34m element of the funds returned to the Department as outlined above). Cancellation and reissue of cheques is entirely driven by customer requests and customer engagement is ongoing through Irish Water’s Customer Contact Centre.
There is no cut-off date for the making of refunds, and all reasonable efforts will continue to be made by Irish Water to facilitate customers who require a cheque to be cancelled and reissued, or who may be entitled to a refund they have not yet received. Any of the remaining funding allocation given to Irish Water for the purpose of refunding water charges to relevant domestic customers and which cannot be used for that purpose, will in time be returned to the Exchequer in line with standard financial procedures.
290. Deputy Clare Daly asked the Minister for Housing, Planning and Local Government the manner in which residents from outside counties Donegal and Mayo will be able to access the mica redress scheme in circumstances in which they can demonstrate that they have been affected. [47365/18]
View answer291. Deputy Clare Daly asked the Minister for Housing, Planning and Local Government the way in which homeowners will be able to access remediation in view of the fact that the report commissioned by the NSAI earlier in 2018 and the development of the Irish standards for assessment of block contamination, which revealed that contamination cases had occurred in the north Leinster, including Fingal. [47366/18]
View answerI propose to take Questions Nos. 290 and 291 together.
In 2013, the issue of external walls of dwellings displaying significant cracking in Donegal was raised with my Department. The nature of the problem related to the crumbling of the concrete blockwork in the external walls of affected dwellings, thereby compromising their structural integrity and giving rise to considerable personal distress to the many homeowners involved. At that time, several hundred homes were suspected to be affected in north Donegal. The presence of muscovite mica in abundant quantities in the aggregate constituent of the concrete blocks was suggested as being one of the main factors contributing to the deterioration of the concrete blocks.
By the end of 2013, similar problems had also come to light in both public and private dwellings located in west Mayo and Mayo County Council submitted a report to my Department on problems that had been identified with the concrete blockwork in their social housing stock. In this instance, it was the presence of pyrite in the aggregate constituent of the concrete block that was suggested as being one of the main factors contributing to the deterioration of the concrete blocks. The emergence of similar problems among private households located in County Mayo was also reported in 2013.
Over the course of 2014 and 2015, there were significant representations, media reports and letters from affected homeowners illustrating the increasing scale of the problems emerging in the two counties, the progressive nature of the external wall cracking and the resultant structural distress in the affected properties.
An Expert Panel on Concrete Blocks was established by my Department in 2016 and its terms of reference were limited to the investigation of the problems that have emerged in the concrete blockwork of certain dwellings in Counties Donegal and Mayo.
Under Budget 2019, the Government approved in principle the development of a grant scheme of financial assistance to support affected homeowners in the two counties to carry out the necessary remediation works to dwellings that have been damaged due to defective concrete blocks. Work is underway in my Department on the development of such a scheme, including discussions with the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform in relation to funding and taking into account all considerations. It is intended to revert to Government with proposals for the scheme by the end of the year, with a view to publishing details of the scheme as soon as possible thereafter.
A standardised protocol is currently being developed by the National Standards Authority of Ireland (NSAI), which can be used to assess and categorise the damage in properties where the concrete blocks are suspected to contain the minerals mica or pyrite and it will inform the course of action in relation to remedial works for all such affected properties. It is expected that the standardised protocol will be published in the coming weeks and can be used by home owners anywhere in the country.
Neither my Department nor the NSAI are aware of the report referred to by the Deputy.
292. Deputy Bernard J. Durkan asked the Minister for Housing, Planning and Local Government the number of new local authority house starts, excluding activity generated by approved housing bodies, recorded in each local authority area in the past 12 months; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [47378/18]
View answer293. Deputy Bernard J. Durkan asked the Minister for Housing, Planning and Local Government if contracts excluding activity generated by approved housing bodies can be entered into between the private sector and the local authorities with a view to the provision of urgently required local authority housing; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [47379/18]
View answer294. Deputy Bernard J. Durkan asked the Minister for Housing, Planning and Local Government the extent to which he can facilitate the provision of direct build local authority-only housing starts excluding the activity by approved housing bodies by way of the private sector, including planning permission and site works for a contract price; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [47380/18]
View answer295. Deputy Bernard J. Durkan asked the Minister for Housing, Planning and Local Government the extent to which sufficient infrastructure exists to facilitate an accelerated programme of direct build local authority houses nationally without reference to approved housing bodies; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [47381/18]
View answerI propose to take Questions Nos. 292 to 295, inclusive, together.
My Department is supporting local authorities in the provision of new build social housing through a range of different initiatives, including the construction of social homes on their own lands and through working in partnership with private developers to deliver social housing construction through turnkey arrangements.
Through this range of supports, local authorities now have substantial pipelines of new build social housing projects approved, details of which can be seen in the Quarter 2 2018 Construction Status Report, which is available on the Rebuilding Ireland website at the following link: http://rebuildingireland.ie/news/minister-murphy-publishes-latest-social-housing-construction-report/.
These Construction Status Reports include construction schemes being delivered through the range of different programmes. Those listed as "SHIP Construction" are new build schemes taken forward by local authorities, usually on sites they own or have acquired. In most cases, the local authority will have procured a design team externally and in all cases, will contract the construction of the new social homes to private developers. "SHIP Turnkey" projects are separately identified in the report and are construction schemes where local authorities contract private developers to construct new housing, usually taking advantage of designs - which are fully building regulation compliant - and planning permissions that are already in place.
The most recent construction status report reflects an increase in the scale of the social housing build programme, with 1,067 schemes (or phases of schemes) in place, delivering 16,351 homes. Of this total, 3,518 homes have already been delivered during 2016, 2017 and up to Q2 2018, while a further 4,602 have started on site and are under construction. Almost 1,600 are at the final pre-construction stage and the remainder are progressing through the various stages of planning, design and procurement. The projects are individually listed in the report and include the current position on each project, including those that have started on site this year.
In relation to infrastructure, the Local Infrastructure Housing Activation Fund (LIHAF) is designed to activate housing supply by putting in place the enabling public infrastructure necessary to ensure that large scale development can take place on key sites in urban areas of high housing demand. Approval was given for 30 projects under LIHAF in 2017 and early 2018, and these projects will stimulate development of approximately 20,000 homes across 14 local authorities, at a cost of approximately €195 million, of which around 75% will be provided from exchequer funding. Kildare County Council has been approved for funding for three LIHAF projects at Sallins, Naas and Maynooth, at a total cost of €21.4 million.
296. Deputy Bernard J. Durkan asked the Minister for Housing, Planning and Local Government the extent to which adequate funding remains available to Kildare County Council for the provision of disabled persons and housing adaptation grants; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [47382/18]
View answerThe Disabled Persons Grant Scheme provides funding to all local authorities to undertake adaptations and extensions to their existing social housing stock. €404,477 has been made available to Kildare County Council for this purpose in 2018. An application for additional funding has been received from the Council and is currently under consideration.
My Department also provides funding for the Housing Adaptation Grants for Older People and People with a Disability in private houses. In 2018, Kildare County Council's available funding was €3,012,220. I expect the Council to draw down their full allocation and that this will provide sufficient support to meet the costs of the services delivered under this programme this year.
297. Deputy Bernard J. Durkan asked the Minister for Housing, Planning and Local Government the number of families homeless and on Kildare County Council's housing waiting lists; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [47383/18]
View answerDetails on the number of households qualified for social housing support in each local authority area are provided in the statutory Summary of Social Housing Assessments (SSHA), which has been carried out on an annual basis since 2016. The results of each SSHA are available on my Department’s website and include breakdowns by each local authority across a range of categories. Details in relation to those whose basis of need for social housing support is "Homeless/living in an institution, emergency accommodation or hostel" can be found at tables 2.5 and A1.5 of the report. The 2018 Report can be accessed at the link below:
Summary Of Social Housing Assessments 2018
It is important to note that the SSHA is a point in time exercise with 11 June 2018 being the count date for the most recent report. It is not directly comparable to the monthly reports published by the Department regarding the numbers of individuals in emergency accommodation arrangements.
298. Deputy Bernard J. Durkan asked the Minister for Housing, Planning and Local Government the extent to which each local authority can make available developed housing sites for families in a position to meet their own housing needs by way of self-build; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [47384/18]
View answerLocal authorities already have powers to make low-cost sites available to individuals, who are qualified for social housing support, and collectively, to voluntary or co-operative not-for-profit housing associations.
In addition, in order to support the affordable housing programmes of local authorities, the Government has committed €310 million, over the three years 2019 to 2021, under the Serviced Sites Fund (SSF) announced as part of Budget 2019. The funding is available for key facilitating infrastructure, on public lands, to support the provision of affordable homes to purchase or rent. I envisage a maximum amount of SSF funding of €50,000 per affordable home and on this basis at least 6,200 affordable homes could be facilitated.
A first call for proposals under the Fund issued to the four Dublin local authorities, Kildare, Meath, Wicklow, Louth and Cork County Councils, and Cork and Galway City Councils. Fifteen proposals were received, from nine of the local authorities targeted under this first call and I expect to announce funding decisions in relation to these applications shortly. I expect infrastructure works on approved projects to begin as soon as possible thereafter and delivery of affordable homes from late 2019/early 2020 onwards.
More broadly, all local authorities are carrying out economic assessments of the requirement for affordable housing in their areas and the viability to deliver such affordable housing from their sites. My Department hosted a workshop for local authorities last week to discuss these issues.
A second call for proposals under the Fund will be made shortly. The scope of that call will be influenced by the information received from local authorities, as part of the aforementioned assessments, which they have been requested to submit by 30 November.
In terms of the type of affordable housing that will be delivered on local authority sites it may be affordable housing for purchase, for example, under the recently commenced provisions of Part 5 of the Housing (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 2009, or cost rental, which is being advanced on a number of pilot sites before being rolled out further. The Regulations to support the operation of Part 5 will be finalised shortly.
I also introduced a new Rebuilding Ireland Home Loan to enable credit-worthy first-time buyers to access sustainable mortgage lending to purchase new or second-hand properties within a suitable price range.
Finally, first-time buyers can also avail of the Help-To-Buy Scheme, which is intended to alleviate some of the challenges faced by first-time buyers in providing the required 10% deposit of the market value of the property.
299. Deputy Bernard J. Durkan asked the Minister for Housing, Planning and Local Government if local authorities have sought additional capital for the acquisition of building lands on which it might be proposed to build local authority houses as opposed to through the aegis of approved housing bodies; the degree to which previously owned local authority lands have been utilised for exclusively local authority house building purposes; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [47385/18]
View answerThe development of publicly owned residential lands for social and affordable housing is a top priority for this Government. In this context, together with developing a significant build programme on their existing residential land bank, local authorities are also required to consider the availability of land for housing, particularly social and affordable housing, within their area of responsibility.
Given the priority of the strategic development of the local authority land bank, all local authority residential sites were mapped on the Rebuilding Ireland land map, which is available at the following link on the Rebuilding Ireland website, http://rebuildingireland.ie/news/rebuilding-ireland-land-map/. The map includes details of over 700 local authority and Housing Agency owned sites amounting to some 1,700 hectares, and local authorities have been requested to update the map on a quarterly basis.
€2.4 billion is being provided for housing in 2019 and all local authorities are encouraged to bring forward viable and appropriate development proposals, which can be funded through the range of schemes and programmes that have been put in place. For example, as part of Budget 2019, the Government announced €310 million, under the Serviced Sites Fund (SSF), for enabling infrastructure on Council lands to facilitate affordable housing. The first call issued to local authorities in June and further calls will be made in the weeks and months ahead.
In terms of providing housing support to the most vulnerable, a strong and growing social housing construction pipeline is now in place, as evidenced in the Quarter 2 2018 Social Housing Construction Status Report. Since the end of 2016, the number of schemes and homes in the programme has doubled. Activity on-site has also increased significantly, with 1,074 homes going on-site in Q2 this year alone. The Q2 2018 Report is available at the following link: http://rebuildingireland.ie/news/minister-murphy-publishes-latest-social-housing-construction-report/.
In order to assist local authorities further my Department hosted a workshop last week to discuss strategic land development and the delivery of affordable housing. Further bilateral engagement between local authorities and my Department will now follow with a view to progressing further social and affordable projects on council lands.
While the development of existing local authority sites is the priority, where a local authority identifies a need to acquire additional lands, it may seek to borrow the required finance from the Housing Finance Agency. Once the site is included within the social housing construction programme my Department would then normally consider recouping the land costs and any associated loan interest charges to the local authority, as part of the social housing project approval process.
In accordance with Section 106 of the Local Government Act 2001, as amended, the decision to borrow is a reserved function of the elected members of the local authority concerned, who have direct responsibility in law for all reserved functions and are accountable for all expenditure by the local authority. As such, it is a matter for each local authority to determine its own spending priorities in the context of the annual budgetary process, having regard to both locally identified needs and available resources.
Section 106 of the Act also provides that local authorities must obtain the consent of the appropriate Minister to undertake borrowing. In this regard, sanction to borrow for housing land acquisition is submitted by the local authority to my Department, and sanction may be granted based on an assessment of the financial viability of potential loans insofar as individual local authorities are concerned, and an assessment as to whether the borrowing can be accommodated within the context of the fiscal rules.
300. Deputy Bernard J. Durkan asked the Minister for Housing, Planning and Local Government when he expects to be in a position to revise upwards the income limits appertaining to eligibility for local authority houses and local authority loans in view of the extent to which such applicants are currently excluded and forced into the private rental market, which they cannot afford; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [47386/18]
View answerThe Social Housing Assessment Regulations 2011 prescribe maximum net income limits for each local authority, in different bands according to the area, with income being defined and assessed according to a standard Household Means Policy.
The income bands and the authority area assigned to each band were based on an assessment of the income needed to provide for a household's basic needs, plus a comparative analysis of the local rental cost of housing accommodation across the country. It is important to note that the limits introduced at that time also reflected a blanket increase of €5,000 introduced prior to the new system coming into operation, in order to broaden the base from which social housing tenants are drawn, both promoting sustainable communities and also providing a degree of future-proofing.
As part of the broader social housing reform agenda, a review of income eligibility for social housing supports is underway. The Housing Agency is carrying out the detailed statistical work which will underpin this review on behalf of my Department.
The review will obviously have regard to current initiatives being brought forward in terms of affordability and cost rental and will be completed when the impacts of these parallel initiatives have been considered.
Following a review of the two existing local authority home loan schemes, the House Purchase Loan and the Home Choice Loan, on 1 February 2018, a new loan offering, known as the Rebuilding Ireland Home Loan was launched. The new loan enables credit worthy first time buyers to access sustainable mortgage lending to purchase new or second-hand properties in a suitable price range. The low rate of fixed interest associated with the Rebuilding Ireland Home Loan provides first time buyers with access to mortgage finance that they may not otherwise be able to afford at a higher interest rate.
The income limits which are set out in the Housing (Rebuilding Ireland Home Loans) Regulations 2018 state that single applicants for the loan must not be earning greater than €50,000 gross per annum. The combined income of joint applicants must not be greater than €75,000 per annum. There are no set minimum income limits; however, applicants do need to have sufficient borrowing and repayment capacity and must be capable of repaying the mortgage in accordance with the statutory credit policy underpinning the loan. These income limits are unchanged from the previous local authority loan offerings.
Full details of the loan's eligibility criteria and other information are available from the dedicated Rebuilding Ireland Home Loan website: http://rebuildingirelandhomeloan.ie/.
Any person who meets the eligibility criteria may apply for a loan regardless of whether or not they are on the local authority housing list or qualified for social housing support.
301. Deputy Bernard J. Durkan asked the Minister for Housing, Planning and Local Government if he is satisfied that adequate structural guarantees now exist in the building sector to protect the consumer; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [47387/18]
View answerIn response to the building failures that have emerged over the last decade, my Department and representatives from the local government sector reviewed the existing building control regulatory framework, in collaboration and consultation with industry stakeholders. This has led to a multi-faceted building control reform agenda, which commenced implementation in 2014 with the introduction of the Building Control (Amendment) Regulations 2014.
Under these Regulations, the owner of a building must assign competent persons to design, build, inspect and certify building works he/she has commissioned. They in turn, must account for their work through the lodgement of compliance documentation, inspection plans and statutory certificates. The roles and responsibilities of owners, designers, builders, assigned certifiers, etc. during building works are set out in the Code of Practice for Inspecting and Certifying Buildings and Works, which is available on my Department's website at the following link: http://www.housing.gov.ie/sites/default/files/publications/files/2016-10-21_code_of_practice_for_inspecting_and_certifying_buildings_and_works_final_version.pdf. This has brought clarity and accountability to the roles of those involved in construction projects and a focus on compliance with Building Regulations from design through to construction.
Enforcement of the Building Regulations is a matter for the 31 local building control authorities who have extensive powers of inspection and enforcement under the Acts and who are independent in the use of their statutory powers.
The National Building Control Management Project (NBCMP) was set up to provide centralised oversight, direction and support for the development, standardisation and implementation of building control as an effective shared service in the 31 Building Control Authorities. Under this project, the Building Control Management System (BCMS) was developed. A Framework for Building Control Authorities was prepared to standardise work practices, a compliance support facility has been established and a training programme is being developed and rolled out.
Also, and most fundamentally, steps are in place for the continued strengthening of the inspection regime in Building Control Authorities to carry out meaningful risk-based targeted inspections of building works. Dublin City Council has been confirmed as the lead building control authority, creating a central and stable executive structure to oversee the local building control function, with regular communication and feedback between the lead authority and other local authorities.
The Government has also approved the General Scheme of the Building Control (Construction Industry Register) Bill to establish a mandatory statutory register for builders and specialist sub-contractors. The main objective of the Bill is to develop and promote a culture of competence, good practice and compliance with the Building Regulations within the construction sector. The establishment of a robust, mandatory, statutory register of builders and specialist sub-contractors provides consumers with assurance that they are dealing with competent and compliant operators. The drafting of the Bill is being progressed and while I am not in a position at this stage to give a precise indication of the timeline for the Bill's publication, my Department is working with the Attorney General's Office with a view to achieving publication in Q1 2019.
These reforms have already brought, and, through their full implementation, will continue to bring, a new order and discipline to bear on construction projects, creating an enhanced culture of compliance with the Building Regulations.
It is important, however, to note that under the Building Control Acts 1990 to 2014, primary responsibility for compliance with the requirements of the Building Regulations rests with the owners, designers and builders of buildings. As such, in general, building defects are matters for resolution between the contracting parties involved, i.e. the homeowner, the builder, the developer and/or their respective insurers, structural guarantee or warranty scheme. It is incumbent on the parties responsible for poor workmanship and/or the supply of defective materials to face up to their responsibilities and take appropriate action to provide remedies for the affected homeowners.
