Results 161-180 of 1,080,571 for in 'Dáil debates' OR (speaker:Máiría Cahill OR speaker:Dara Calleary OR speaker:Matt Shanahan OR speaker:Aindrias Moynihan OR speaker:James Browne OR speaker:Thomas Gould OR speaker:Catherine Martin OR speaker:Ossian Smyth OR speaker:Seán Sherlock OR speaker:Joe Flaherty OR speaker:Duncan Smith OR speaker:Stephen Donnelly OR speaker:Paul Donnelly OR speaker:Peadar Tóibín OR speaker:James O'Connor OR speaker:Pauline Tully OR speaker:Micheál Martin OR speaker:Marian Harkin OR speaker:Jennifer Carroll MacNeill OR speaker:Hildegarde Naughton OR speaker:Alan Farrell OR speaker:Damien English OR speaker:Cormac Devlin OR speaker:Mark Ward OR speaker:Eamon Ryan OR speaker:Rose Conway-Walsh) in 'Committee meetings'

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

Stephen Donnelly: If the Senator is that keen to talk to Ian Carter, he is more than capable of inviting Ian Carter. That is the only thing I would say. I have accepted the point.

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

Stephen Donnelly: As regards any specific changes and considerations with regard to the terms of reference for the HIQA review, I would need to go back and look at the paperwork involved. I do not believe I could give an answer here that would be satisfactory to the Senator. I cannot point to individual lines or clauses.

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

Stephen Donnelly: As I was saying earlier on, an interim report will be coming to me in February. The Senator is perfectly entitled to challenge me. I fully accept that. The only challenge I would make back is that his party held the office of Minister for Health from 2011 to 2020 and it is only now that a HIQA review is being carried out. While I accept the urgency of this matter, with respect, the...

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

Stephen Donnelly: I will provide a clarification. It is relevant to the question the Senator is asking. Deputy Shortall stated earlier that HIQA recommended another emergency department and model 3 hospital in 2022 or 2023.

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

Stephen Donnelly: That has been checked and the advice I have been given is that HIQA did not make such a recommendation. It did not recommend a second emergency department. I mention that for clarity. If the advice I am getting is incorrect, that is absolutely fine, but that is the advice I have. My view is that there is a strong case for a second emergency department in the mid-west. That is why I...

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

Stephen Donnelly: It was both. They get agreed between the Department and HIQA.

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

Stephen Donnelly: It was definitely me and my Department. I believe HIQA was looking for the same thing.

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

Stephen Donnelly: We will get a note to the Deputy on the matter if that would help.

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.