Results 141-160 of 1,131,590 for in 'Dáil debates' OR in 'Committee meetings' (speaker:Rory O'Hanlon OR speaker:Peter Fitzpatrick OR speaker:Seán Sherlock OR speaker:Joe McHugh OR speaker:Aindrias Moynihan OR speaker:Cathal Berry OR speaker:Micheál Martin OR speaker:Helen McEntee OR speaker:Matt Carthy OR speaker:Louise O'Reilly OR speaker:Johnny Mythen OR speaker:Michael Healy-Rae OR speaker:Catherine Connolly OR speaker:Pearse Doherty OR speaker:Michael McGrath OR speaker:Jim O'Callaghan OR speaker:Thomas Gould OR speaker:Seán Ó Fearghaíl OR speaker:Thomas Pringle OR speaker:Joe Flaherty OR speaker:Mark Ward OR speaker:Marc Ó Cathasaigh OR speaker:Seán Crowe OR speaker:Noel Grealish OR speaker:Alan Dillon OR speaker:Mattie McGrath OR speaker:Ossian Smyth OR speaker:David Cullinane OR speaker:Martin Heydon OR speaker:Peter Burke OR speaker:Pa Daly OR speaker:Niamh Smyth)

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Issues relating to University Hospital Limerick: Discussion (10 Oct 2024)

Seán Crowe: Thanks very much. I am out of time. We will not have enough time to bring the members back in. I apologise to Deputy Wynne. I know a number of her questions have not been answered but we do not have the time.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Issues relating to University Hospital Limerick: Discussion (10 Oct 2024)

Seán Crowe: I do not have time to bring in other speakers.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Issues relating to University Hospital Limerick: Discussion (10 Oct 2024)

Seán Crowe: I do not mind. I have not asked any questions myself. Does Deputy Durkan have one question?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Issues relating to University Hospital Limerick: Discussion (10 Oct 2024)

Seán Crowe: I thank the Minister and his staff very much for coming in. We have all found the information we have been given very interesting. As a committee, we took the unprecedented step of going down to visit UHL. Members expressed a number of reasons for this but we were all concerned by the really negative stories we were hearing about what was happening in Limerick. We were hearing stories for...

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

Thomas Gould: I thank the witnesses for attending. When I originally got into politics, I was not a big fan of AHBs. I believed they were doing the work local authorities should be doing. I just could not get my head around it. However, they do some fabulous work and I cannot understand why local authorities are unable to deliver what AHBs can. That might be down to funding or a number of other...

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

Thomas Gould: Ms Anderson mentioned that the rent calculation was based on a length of time. Is that 20, 30 or 40 years?

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

Thomas Gould: Could a longer period be considered to help reduce costs? There are people who do not qualify for social housing, cannot buy a house and cannot pay market rents. Many people are living in box bedrooms. There is an entire box bedroom generation. Maybe we need to tease out the question of the period more. Deputy Ó Broin will probably do so. Capacity is another issue. We could do...

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

Thomas Gould: We know that there is definitely a need. A cost-rental scheme in Glanmire in Cork ran out of houses. I am not 100% sure about the figures, but I believe there were 1,200 applications for 36 properties.

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

Thomas Gould: Ms Anderson touched on the standard of cost-rental accommodation. In Cork, it is of a very high quality and being managed properly. It is a place people want to live. I spoke to two young women who were sharing a property on Lancaster Quay. One worked in the hospital and the other worked in the city council. They were really positive about the accommodation. They spoke about a community...

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

Thomas Gould: I apologise, I am going to have to leave after this. Something struck me when Ms Cleary was speaking about older people and pensioners. We see pensioners who are homeless, which was probably something we never saw previously in the lifetime of this State. There are 224 now, and the number is creeping up slowly. I imagine that the vast majority of people who avail of cost-rental properties...

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

Thomas Gould: I appreciate that. What happens to that lady I mentioned who is on €42,000 who does not qualify for HAP because she is over the threshold? Many people have to pay a lot of extra money over the HAP amount in order to get rental properties. Will HAP be sufficient in order that there will not be pensioners who are struggling? Will it be enough for pensioners to still be able to afford...

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

Thomas Gould: I had not thought of what Ms Hennigan said about people who lose their incomes for different reasons, namely losing their jobs or on foot of health issues. It is important that work is being done, so that is good to hear. We are looking at cost rental long term. People are saying we need to develop the Irish mentality to cost rental, and all those things need to be considered. One of...

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

Thomas Gould: I wanted the witnesses to say that.

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

Thomas Gould: Even if we were to take the human side out of it, Mr. O'Gorman has made the point about the consequences of having cold and damp houses with mould in them. I have people now whose clothes in their wardrobes are mouldy. The ends of their beds are getting damp because they are up against the wall. The human cost of this is great, but so is the financial cost. When there is a chance to do...

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

Thomas Gould: I always that the concept whereby an AHB or a local authority would step in when a family was in trouble rather than that family losing its house was a good one. There seems to be a reluctance, however, to get involved in this undertaking. I would like to see more of it being done. I say this because my big worry now is that people are paying so much for overvalued homes that some of them...

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

Thomas Gould: I thank Ms Cleary.

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

Thomas Gould: What I am taking from that is that we are saying local authorities cannot plan in the long-term.

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

Thomas Gould: I will say that local authorities, to be fair to them, are not being funded long-term. This would be the way to look at it. I must run, so I thank the witnesses very much. Go raibh maith agat.

South Coast Designated Maritime Area Plan for Offshore Renewable Energy: Motion (10 Oct 2024)

Jennifer Whitmore: I too, welcome this motion and the development of the DMAPs. I recognise the enormous amount of work and consultation that went into bringing them about. I also acknowledge the fact that during the consultation period the Minister of State did listen to the environmental groups and took into consideration the environmental assessment needs of these areas. My comments are probably more...

South Coast Designated Maritime Area Plan for Offshore Renewable Energy: Motion (10 Oct 2024)

David Cullinane: I welcome today's motion and the fact that we now have the DMAPs for the south coast. I am very supportive of offshore renewable energy and its importance to the future infrastructure needs of the south east in particular, but also the State and the island, as well as its importance for Ireland reaching its climate action targets, becoming more carbon-neutral and also in terms of new...