Results 141-160 of 1,103,792 for in 'Dáil debates' OR in 'Committee meetings' (speaker:David Norris OR speaker:Cathal Berry OR speaker:Pa Daly OR speaker:Steven Matthews OR speaker:Jackie Cahill OR speaker:Martin Kenny OR speaker:Jennifer Carroll MacNeill OR speaker:Alan Kelly OR speaker:Brendan Smith OR speaker:Eoin Ó Broin OR speaker:Alan Farrell OR speaker:Aodhán Ó Ríordáin OR speaker:Cormac Devlin OR speaker:Duncan Smith OR speaker:Malcolm Noonan OR speaker:Ciarán Cannon OR speaker:Joe McHugh OR speaker:Paul Murphy OR speaker:Denise Mitchell OR speaker:Thomas Byrne OR speaker:Claire Kerrane OR speaker:Peter Fitzpatrick OR speaker:Roderic O'Gorman OR speaker:Catherine Connolly OR speaker:Christopher O'Sullivan OR speaker:Seán Canney OR speaker:Michael Creed)

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

Eoin Ó Broin: With the Chair's indulgence, is there any clarity on how what is currently not equity will become equity? I will ask counterparts that question in a few minutes when they take the hot seat. Has that issue been resolved or is it still under consideration?

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

Eoin Ó Broin: that is a terrible politician's answer to a tricky question.

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

Eoin Ó Broin: Apologies, is the importance of that, that it speaks to the gearing issue Mr. O'Gorman spoke about, that is, it eases a bit of the borrowing?

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

Eoin Ó Broin: To add to that, I agree. For that to happen, there needs to be a single financing structure for all cost rentals. There are now three different financing structures between the AHBs, the local authorities and the LDA. There needs to be a single rent setting methodology. There are different rent setting methodologies within the witnesses' sector and again within the local authorities and...

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

Steven Matthews: Thank you, Deputy Ó Broin. I thank you all for your attendance here today. I found it very helpful. We will now suspend the meeting for five minutes to allow the witnesses to leave and to allow the witnesses for the next session to prepare.

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

Steven Matthews: Good afternoon everybody. You are all very welcome back to the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Housing, Local Government and Heritage. We are resuming the discussion on the Housing (Miscellaneous Provisions) (No. 2) Bill 2024. We are joined by officials from the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage. I welcome: Mr. Vinny Colgan, from the AHB policy and agency governance...

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 the officials. They are sick of looking at us, at this stage. It is the third time this week.

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

Steven Matthews: They might not have to look at us much longer.

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

Eoin Ó Broin: There are two values to this session. One of those, certainly for the Chair and I, is that with each of the sessions, including the private briefing, Second and Committee Stages and the earlier session this morning, we are getting a much better sense and understanding of the Bill. That is already very helpful. It is also very important to put some of this on the public record. While...

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

Eoin Ó Broin: To be clear, Mr. Colgan is referring to the requirement that would then arise of having to split the AHB function from the support or other functions.

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

Eoin Ó Broin: I asked this question in private session but again it is important it is put on the record. That means, for example, after this Part is enacted and commenced, the powers the regulator currently has over an AHB will apply to all of the activities of the AHB. I ask specifically in relation to the challenges that arose in the Peter McVerry Trust because of the blurring of the housing and...

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

Eoin Ó Broin: For clarity, there is no power that AHBRA currently exercises over a registered AHB that it will not be able to exercise over the same AHB after this change in the registration process.

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

Eoin Ó Broin: With respect to Part 3, I have well-rehearsed the concerns I have so I will not go back over them. The witnesses know what they are. Is the Department in a position to share with the committee on the record any information about where income eligibility thresholds for single person household sharing will be? I know the Minister does not have the actual amount. What can the witnesses tell...

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

Eoin Ó Broin: Without pressing on a number - I know Ms Cooney cannot provide one - I presume there will not be a huge change between the current income limit for a household for a two-bedroom property versus two separate households. There will not be a huge gap between them.

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

Eoin Ó Broin: My next question is about allocation schemes. I know Brian O'Gorman was only speaking for Clúid but nobody in the session earlier said they had asked for this change. I am not opposed to it in principle but so far only one hypothetical case has been discussed. We all know it is not a hypothetical case and that it is based on a real potential live project which Senator Cummins...

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

Eoin Ó Broin: Targets were an issue that came up in the previous session. I took from our session this morning that the AHB sector was not looking to do the targeting. I am not against targeting in principle, it is just to understand. In those consultations with various providers and potential providers, has that targeting been raised by the LDA or potential private sector deliverers of cost rental?...

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

Eoin Ó Broin: Am I correct in saying there is no allocation scheme for the affordable purchase units and that there is a lottery of whoever applies? This could be a mixture of something similar to affordable purchase but also with some categorisation of key workers or workers in proximity to places of work.

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 no issue with the change in the part of section 16 that deals with tenants in situ. Ms Cooney explained clearly that she believes it is legally necessary. I am not challenging that. The Department heard from the largest AHB in the country this morning that it will not change the current challenge in getting AHBs to purchase those units stuck with the Housing Agency because the...

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

Eoin Ó Broin: At the risk of sounding like a journalist asking Simon Harris when he will call the election, is there any notional timeline for when that work might be concluded or there might be some move? I ask because the situation has been stuck for quite some time.

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

Eoin Ó Broin: On LDA capitalisation, Mr. Colgan talked at the very end of his presentation about how there was €6.25 billion of capitalisation from the three tranches. That is very clear. He talked about the €1.25 billion in debt and then he talked about €1.25 billion and gave a longer explanation. My understanding is that the changes we made to the LDA Act on foot of the Cabinet...