Northern Ireland Institutions Dail Éireann — 2023-04-27 ============================================================ Darragh O'Brien (FF), Dublin Fingal The Water Services Act 2007 , as amended, requires all owners of premises served by an individual domestic waste water treatment system to register their system with the relevant local authority. Further details are available at the following link: www.protectourwater.ie/default.aspx. I can confirm that my Department does not compile the requested data. In relation to the Census 2016 information requested, Census data, including the number of households that recorded having a septic tank, can be accessed on the CSO website, at the following link data.cso.ie/table/EY044 Micheál Martin (FF), Cork South-Central I thank the Deputy for raising the issue. The full and effective operation of all of the institutions of the Good Friday Agreement across all three strands is a key priority for me for and for our Government. The people of Northern Ireland are entitled to a functioning Assembly and Executive. In recent weeks we have seen cuts to services that will affect Northern Ireland's most vulnerable. It is vital that the people of Northern Ireland are represented by the politicians that they elected in May 2022. The absence of a functioning Executive also has knock-on effects on the operation of strand two of the agreement which has been severely disrupted in recent years. It is vital that the North-South Ministerial Council is allowed to continue its work as soon as possible. I remain in regular contact with political representatives in Northern Ireland, reiterating the urgent need for a functioning assembly and Executive. I am also in regular contact with the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, with restoration of the institutions a core focus of our discussions. I met the Secretary of State and the British Prime Minister most recently last week, at the conference hosted by Queen's University Belfast to mark the 25th anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement. In my remarks at the conference I emphasised the importance that the Government attaches to the restoration of the devolved institutions. I had a substantial bilateral engagement with the Secretary of State on 6 April 2023 when we discussed the restoration of the devolved power-sharing institutions and the Irish Government's continuing opposition to the British Government's legacy Bill. The Secretary of State and I also met at the British-Irish Intergovernmental Conference in Dublin earlier this year, which is a strand three institution. The Government will continue to work across all strands of the Good Friday Agreement in support of the devolved power-sharing institutions in Northern Ireland. Aindrias Moynihan (FF), Cork North-West It is now two months since the Windsor framework was agreed. There has been an opportunity for the different parties to review the agreement and to have questions answered. While some people might have had Good Friday or maybe the US presidential visit as target dates, they have come and gone. It is reasonable to allow people time to consult and clarify, but sooner or later a decision on this must be arrived at so things can move on and an Executive can be established. Is there an identifiable pathway, or what milestones does the Tánaiste see along the route to allow us to get back and establish an Executive? What of the right of the people of Northern Ireland to have a functioning Executive and their expectations about having their elected representatives fulfilling their roles? The right of a nationalist First Minister also seems to be denied in the absence of an Executive. I ask the Tánaiste to outline the milestones he sees ahead. Micheál Martin (FF), Cork South-Central I thank the Deputy for the points he has made. Last week at the three-day event on the Good Friday Agreement a significant dinner was hosted by the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland involving all those who participated in the agreement, but also many community groups and representatives of all the political parties. That gave me an opportunity to informally talk to all the leaders of the Northern Ireland political parties as well as the Secretary of State. Contacts, discussions and assessments are continuing, especially within the DUP. The party engaged in a consultation process with broader unionism and that has concluded. I have said repeatedly that I am very clear that when an election happens in a democracy, it should be followed by the establishment of a parliament or an assembly and then the formation of a government. That is what happens in all normal democratic situations after elections and it is not acceptable that the people of Northern Ireland are being denied the reconvening of the Assembly and the formation of an Executive. In those discussions and at the conference, no door was closed to the prospect of reopening the institutions. Darragh O'Brien (FF), Dublin Fingal I propose to take Questions Nos. 296, 319, 320 and 325 together. Under Housing for All, the Government will deliver 54,000 affordable homes between now and 2030, to be facilitated by local authorities, Approved Housing Bodies (AHBs), the Land Development Agency (LDA) and through a strategic partnership between the State and retail banks. With 2022 representing the first full year of affordable housing delivery under the schemes introduced in the Affordable Housing Act 2021, local authorities have begun to submit data returns and information on delivery of affordable homes in their area to my Department, in the same manner as is done for social housing. The 2022 process is now complete and statistical data on delivery across all delivery streams has been validated and published on the Department's website at the following link: www.gov.ie/en/collection/6060e-overall-social-housing-provision/#affordable-housing-delivery. Following the publication of Housing for All in September 2021, I asked all local authorities to prepare Housing Delivery Action Plans. Each local authority was asked to assess the level of housing demand with affordability constraint projected for their area based on the Housing Need and Demand Assessment Tool and plan their provision accordingly. A copy of each Council’s Housing Delivery Action Plan is available on their individual websites. Local authorities with the highest levels of affordable housing need were set five-year Affordable Delivery Targets. 2022 represented the commencement of a very ambitious programme of delivery of affordable housing. This momentum will continue with delivery increasing significantly this year. A strong pipeline of affordable housing delivery is in place and under continuous development by local authorities, by Approved Housing Bodies using the Cost Rental Equity Loan and by the Land Development Agency. In addition, the First Home Scheme, which was launched in July 2022, supports first-time buyers in purchasing new houses and apartments in the private market through the use of an equity share model. The Scheme aims to support in the region of 8,000 households in acquiring new homes in the private market in the years 2022 to 2026 with an overall budget of €400 million. The scheme is available nationwide. Full information on the scheme is available on the First Home Scheme dedicated website, www.firsthomescheme.ie. Finally, the new Vacant Property Refurbishment Grant is also available nationwide and it provides for grants for refurbishment of vacant and derelict properties. I also announced last year, a new Ready to Build serviced sites scheme under the Fund where local authorities will provide sites at a discount to people who want to build their own home. Information on both of these schemes is available directly from local authorities. Catherine Connolly (CC), Galway West Deputy Ó Murchú wants to come in briefly before the Tánaiste replies. Darragh O'Brien (FF), Dublin Fingal The number of active tenancies as at end 2022, under the Housing Assistance Payment, the Rental Accommodation Scheme and the Long Term Leasing Scheme, is set out in the table below. *The Leasing figure is comprised of NARPS, LA long term leasing, LA short term leasing, AHB lease, Enhanced Leasing and Unsold Affordables. My Department publishes comprehensive programme level statistics on a quarterly basis on social housing delivery activity in all local authorities, including information on HAP, RAS and Leasing. This data is currently available until the end of Quarter 4 2022, and is published on the statistics page of my Department’s website at the following link: www.gov.ie/en/collection/6060e-overall-social-housing-provision/. Micheál Martin (FF), Cork South-Central We are all conscious of the particular milestones that have been outlined. I do not want to speculate on those or the impact of them on the restoration of the institutions. I found it interesting that in the debates and various contributions that took place last week no one said they were not going to go back into the institutions in the fullness of time. Groups have raised issues pertaining to the Windsor agreement. The agreement comprehensively addressed many of the issues unionist political parties raised. There is no question about that. I refer to questions about the movement of goods and the simplification of that. It was dramatic change really and was all based on the EU having access to UK data on trade flows and so on. Significant progress, therefore, was made. The Stormont brake and the manner in which the British Government applies it should give greater succour to unionists, because we are not enamoured with all of that. It is clear from a unionist perspective that that is something they would be supportive of in terms of how the UK Government applies that in its own legislation. I understand the Deputies' concerns and we will keep in touch on this. --- Source: Houses of the Oireachtas. Licensed under CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). The Official Report is revised after first publication; the fetch timestamp below identifies the version quoted. Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2023-04-27/debate/main Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:51:49+00:00 Sitting date: 2023-04-27