Results 181-200 of 1,119,316 for in 'Dáil debates' OR (speaker:Peter Burke OR speaker:Damien English OR speaker:Simon Coveney OR speaker:Darren O'Rourke OR speaker:Michael Fitzmaurice OR speaker:Cathal Berry OR speaker:Alan Dillon OR speaker:Niamh Smyth OR speaker:Róisín Shortall OR speaker:David Stanton OR speaker:James Lawless OR speaker:Simon Harris OR speaker:Mary Butler OR speaker:Kieran O'Donnell OR speaker:James Browne OR speaker:Mattie McGrath OR speaker:Pauline Tully OR speaker:James O'Connor OR speaker:Marc MacSharry OR speaker:Chris Andrews OR speaker:Helen McEntee OR speaker:Pat Buckley OR speaker:Eoin Ó Broin OR speaker:Christopher O'Sullivan OR speaker:Colm Brophy OR speaker:Thomas Gould OR speaker:Jennifer Murnane O'Connor) in 'Committee meetings'

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Housing (Miscellaneous Provisions) (No.2) Bill 2024: Discussion (10 Oct 2024)

Eoin Ó Broin: This is the bit I did not understand. Explain that to me in plain English.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Housing (Miscellaneous Provisions) (No.2) Bill 2024: Discussion (10 Oct 2024)

Eoin Ó Broin: Let me try to put that in plainer English. I appreciate Mr. O'Sullivan reading out the legislation. It is really helpful. In addition to the first tranche of capitalisation of €1.25 billion, the LDA had the capacity to borrow another €1.25 billion on the commercial markets. What Mr. O'Sullivan is saying is that the amendment to the Limerick mayoral Act earlier this year...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Housing (Miscellaneous Provisions) (No.2) Bill 2024: Discussion (10 Oct 2024)

Eoin Ó Broin: I thank Mr. O'Sullivan for the reminder. That still has not been transferred from NAMA.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Housing (Miscellaneous Provisions) (No.2) Bill 2024: Discussion (10 Oct 2024)

Eoin Ó Broin: This is one of the things that I never understood, although I have my suspicions. Obviously NARPS is a special purpose vehicle, SPV, and has the units in it. The debt on those is essentially being repaid by the leasing arrangement between local authorities and approved housing bodies. When NARPS and its units are moved into the LDA, which is a weird thing to do because they are social...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Housing (Miscellaneous Provisions) (No.2) Bill 2024: Discussion (10 Oct 2024)

Eoin Ó Broin: Could the following scenario be the kind of thing we are talking about? The LDA has these units, there is a guaranteed rental stream coming in from the payments but the debt remains. Who holds the debt? On the point of transfer of NARPS to the LDA, where is the debt that is currently being paid off by the leasing payments from the Department of housing and the local authorities?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Housing (Miscellaneous Provisions) (No.2) Bill 2024: Discussion (10 Oct 2024)

Eoin Ó Broin: Is it that the agency has a rental income stream coming in for those units and it could acquire private sector capital against the value of that to develop?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Housing (Miscellaneous Provisions) (No.2) Bill 2024: Discussion (10 Oct 2024)

Eoin Ó Broin: Exactly. That is from the AIB shares sale-----

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Housing (Miscellaneous Provisions) (No.2) Bill 2024: Discussion (10 Oct 2024)

Eoin Ó Broin: -----through the NTMA but with no additional borrowing. I appreciate that the figure of €6.25 billion has been quoted. However, we know John Coleman and the LDA are on the record repeatedly, including at the public accounts committee this morning, saying that, right now, the cost of borrowing commercially is too high. The authority is not, therefore, in the market for commercial...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Housing (Miscellaneous Provisions) (No.2) Bill 2024: Discussion (10 Oct 2024)

Eoin Ó Broin: Let us call it "other sources", because it is not borrowing.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Housing (Miscellaneous Provisions) (No.2) Bill 2024: Discussion (10 Oct 2024)

Eoin Ó Broin: On that €1.25 billion of other sources, is there any visibility on the period over which that €1.25 billion is attracted? How much of that has been attracted in so far? Again, the agency says it has that €1.25 billion, but if it is not there now, somebody might say that is misleading. I am not at all suggesting the committee has been misled, but it is not money to hand...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Housing (Miscellaneous Provisions) (No.2) Bill 2024: Discussion (10 Oct 2024)

Eoin Ó Broin: My maths and my ability to add and subtract is far inferior to that of Mr. O'Sullivan. We have not had access to the full copy of the NewERA report that looks into the business plan. We got a very redacted copy of it. One of the interesting things about that is it was saying last year it needed an extra €5.7 billion of capitalisation. That is not the borrowing requirement or the...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Housing (Miscellaneous Provisions) (No.2) Bill 2024: Discussion (10 Oct 2024)

Eoin Ó Broin: But it is not the funding it was saying it needed.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Housing (Miscellaneous Provisions) (No.2) Bill 2024: Discussion (10 Oct 2024)

Eoin Ó Broin: It does, but one of them was €5.7 billion of capitalisation, not borrowing, because it has scaled its potential borrowing requirements down to less than €1 billion, probably about €700 million over the lifetime of the plan. The only reason I ask, with the indulgence of the Chair, and it relates to cost rental, and I hope to get clarity on what is happening with the...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Housing (Miscellaneous Provisions) (No.2) Bill 2024: Discussion (10 Oct 2024)

Eoin Ó Broin: Nothing I am saying is factually-----

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Housing (Miscellaneous Provisions) (No.2) Bill 2024: Discussion (10 Oct 2024)

Eoin Ó Broin: I have a question on equity. It is very obscure but important. I do not share the gearing concerns about the approved housing bodies with respect to social housing because they have a guaranteed repayment. There is clearly a risk challenge with cost rental. I understand that. Why not increase the CREL to 55%? It is the same thing either way. What is the value of equity? Is it just to...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Housing (Miscellaneous Provisions) (No.2) Bill 2024: Discussion (10 Oct 2024)

Eoin Ó Broin: In order that we are clear, for anybody who has accessed CREL since that increase, it is not equity but a full CREL?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Housing (Miscellaneous Provisions) (No.2) Bill 2024: Discussion (10 Oct 2024)

Eoin Ó Broin: They have not yet gone beyond 35%.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Housing (Miscellaneous Provisions) (No.2) Bill 2024: Discussion (10 Oct 2024)

Eoin Ó Broin: The officials’ heads must get very sore from the constant proliferation of schemes and amendments to schemes. STAR was supposed to do the same thing from the point of view of the LDA. The difficulty the LDA had was that through Project Tosaigh, the all-in acquisition costs were so high that it would not be able to deliver rents of 25% below market rent. As a result, it sought and...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Housing (Miscellaneous Provisions) (No.2) Bill 2024: Discussion (10 Oct 2024)

Eoin Ó Broin: By way of understanding, part of the challenge is that because many of these models have been evolving in real time around schemes and the challenges of schemes, the LDA, which is purportedly a commercial entity, has to pay the passive rate of corporation tax. There is a 25% tax charge which is essentially adding to the rent of the tenant. In an average LDA property that is an extra...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Housing (Miscellaneous Provisions) (No.2) Bill 2024: Discussion (10 Oct 2024)

Eoin Ó Broin: My question is a different one and, again, I do not mean to be awkward. All of what I have said is the current state of play and these are the things people are talking about in the private rooms the witnesses and others are in. Is now not the time to sit down, look at the range of projects that are there and try to find what is the optimum model, inasmuch as one is possible, for both the...