Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 13 July 2023
485. Deputy Eoin Ó Broin asked the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage to set out in tabular form a progress report on each of the eight policy asks from the Regional Independents Group during the Private Members Motion debate on 21st February 2023 (details supplied) which were incorporated into the Government’s countermotion to the Sinn Féin motion on that date. [35360/23]
View answerThe progress report on each of the eight policy asks from the Regional Independents Group during the Private Members Motion debate on 21 March 2023 is set out in the table below:
|
Policy Area |
Update |
|
Remove barriers for older people in long-term nursing home care who wish to lease out their homes, effective from 1st May, 2023; |
Effective from 1 November 2022, the amount of rental income that nursing home residents can retain under the Fair Deal from renting their principle private residence increased from 20% to 60%. Under the terms of the amended legislation, this policy change is currently being reviewed by the Department of Health. The Department of Health has informed us that the timeline for completion of the review is set at 3 months (from 1 May) with work ongoing towards an accelerated conclusion. |
|
Increase the refurbishment grant rate for the Croí Cónaithe (Towns) Fund Scheme, to reflect current building costs, effective from 1st May, 2023; Extend the Croí Cónaithe scheme to include properties which are made available for rent and not just owner-occupied, effective from 1st May, 2023; Revise the Croí Cónaithe scheme to include properties built prior to 2007, effective from 1st May, 2023; |
To build on the initial success of the Grant since its launch last July, a number of changes came into effect on 1 May 2023: - The current maximum grant rates were increased from €30,000 to €50,000 for vacant properties and from €50,000 to €70,000 for derelict properties; - The Grant has been extended to include rental properties; and - The eligibility date, which was previously 1993 for the build date, was changed to include vacant and derelict properties built up to and including 2007. |
|
Extend the Rent-a-Room Relief scheme to people receiving social welfare payments who rent out a room so that they do not lose supplementary benefits, such as the medical card, effective from 1st May, 2023; |
With regards to people who rent a room in their own home, the Minister for Social Protection, with the consent of the Minister for Finance, signed two regulations in March last year, and extended them in March this year in order to ensure that a Social Protection recipient would be provided with a means disregard, in respect of means-assessed social protection payments, equivalent to €14,000 per annum (Equivalent to the D/Finance Rent a Room Tax Exemption amount). Rules were also amended to facilitate a person retaining ancillary social protection allowances, such as Fuel Allowance and Living Alone Allowance in those circumstances.
There has been ongoing engagement between the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage, the Department of Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science and the Department of Health over recent months to review the range of related policy, legislative, financial and operational implications arising from this proposal. Legal advice received confirms that primary legislation is required to implement an exemption of Rent-a-Room income from the medical card assessment process. Officials are progressing work to identify and finalise the legislative requirements needed to give effect to this objective. |
|
Introduce in Budget 2024 a tax relief scheme to take effect in the current tax year for small landlords; |
Decisions regarding tax incentives and reliefs, whether in respect of the introduction of new measures or the amendment of existing measures, are normally made in the context of the annual Budget and Finance Bill process. |
|
Amend the Housing Assistance Payment (HAP) to guarantee payment to landlords where the tenant defaults on payment of contribution to HAP, effective from 1st May, 2023; |
Systems and processes needed for the implementation of a Landlord Payment Guarantee have been put in place. From 1 May 2023, if a tenant defaults on payment of differential rent under the Landlord Payment Guarantee, the HAP payment to the landlord will be guaranteed for a 12 month period, or earlier if the tenancy ends prior to that date. The HAP debt management process (DMP) will continue to operate as normal up to suspension stage, with the addition of payment plans to assist tenants in maintaining their tenancies. |
|
Immediately engage with site owners who have obtained planning permission under the Strategic Infrastructure Development and have not yet commenced building due to viability issues, in order to ensure immediate commencement of these projects under affordable housing schemes |
Project Tosaigh aims to unlock land with full planning permission that is not being developed by private sector owners due to financing and other constraints, and use it to accelerate the supply of affordable housing. The LDA commenced the formal procurement process for Phase 2 of Project Tosaigh on 29 June 2023 with the publication of a Prior Information Notice (PIN) in the Official Journal of the European Union (OJEU). The tender, which will be published on 24 July 2023 will advance procurement via a two-stage process for a panel of delivery partners (house builders). The panel is expected to be in place by Q4 2023.
The Croí Cónaithe (Cities) Scheme is a fund to support the building of apartments for sale to owner-occupiers. It aims to bridge the current “Viability Gap” between the cost of building apartments and the market sale price (where the cost of building is greater). The Housing Agency are now concluding the appraisal projects under call one with the potential to deliver a further 1,530 owner occupied apartments. Letters of Intent have issued to successful applicants from the first call and the first contract was signed on 4 July 2023. It is expected that further contracts will be signed in the coming weeks. The second call under the Scheme was launched on 8 July 2023.
Furthermore, there is a suite of measures underway to address the current viability challenges including, but not limited to:
- the introduction of temporary time-limited arrangements for the waiving of local authority development contributions, and the refunding of Uisce Éireann water and wastewater connection charges; - a new Cost Rental Viability Measure to activate existent planning permissions, particularly in the Build-to-Rent sector, and to make the resulting supply of homes more affordable; - changes to both the Cost Rental Equity Loan and the Affordable Housing Fund grant to support Approved Housing Bodies (AHBs) and local authorities and to deliver more affordable homes - A list of priority actions which aim to help reduce cost and increase standardisation in the provision of housing from a recently completed cost of construction study; and - A list of actions arising from the Report on the Drivers of Cost and Availability of Finance for Residential Development. |
