Results 101-120 of 1,204 for speaker:Mary Fitzpatrick

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Scrutiny of Homeless Prevention Bill 2020, Tenancy Protection Bill 2023 and Dereliction and Building Regeneration Bill 2022: Private Members' Bills (14 Dec 2023)

Mary Fitzpatrick: That is because the majority of homelessness is in Dublin.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Scrutiny of Homeless Prevention Bill 2020, Tenancy Protection Bill 2023 and Dereliction and Building Regeneration Bill 2022: Private Members' Bills (14 Dec 2023)

Mary Fitzpatrick: The DRHE does, however. It operates for the four local authorities.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Scrutiny of Homeless Prevention Bill 2020, Tenancy Protection Bill 2023 and Dereliction and Building Regeneration Bill 2022: Private Members' Bills (14 Dec 2023)

Mary Fitzpatrick: I am not trying to be pedantic. The service is there from the DRHE.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Scrutiny of Homeless Prevention Bill 2020, Tenancy Protection Bill 2023 and Dereliction and Building Regeneration Bill 2022: Private Members' Bills (14 Dec 2023)

Mary Fitzpatrick: I asked whether there has been an assessment of the number of tenancies likely to require this legislation, other than from anecdotal evidence.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Scrutiny of Homeless Prevention Bill 2020, Tenancy Protection Bill 2023 and Dereliction and Building Regeneration Bill 2022: Private Members' Bills (14 Dec 2023)

Mary Fitzpatrick: It relates only to affordable housing.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Scrutiny of Homeless Prevention Bill 2020, Tenancy Protection Bill 2023 and Dereliction and Building Regeneration Bill 2022: Private Members' Bills (14 Dec 2023)

Mary Fitzpatrick: May I ask another question? I was thinking about the definition of "homelessness". In practice, the definition of being at risk of homelessness is when one's current accommodation is no longer securely available. The definition in the Bill is that one receives a valid notice to quit that is going to expire within a set period of time and as a consequence of that, one is at risk of losing...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Scrutiny of Homeless Prevention Bill 2020, Tenancy Protection Bill 2023 and Dereliction and Building Regeneration Bill 2022: Private Members' Bills (14 Dec 2023)

Mary Fitzpatrick: I have to disagree with the Deputy about the functioning of the tenant in situ scheme. It is working well from the perspective of social housing tenants. There was a bit of a culture change and a need for local authorities that have not been experiencing as much homelessness to adapt and to develop a sensitivity to realising they had this tool and to providing it. That has now largely been...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Scrutiny of Homeless Prevention Bill 2020, Tenancy Protection Bill 2023 and Dereliction and Building Regeneration Bill 2022: Private Members' Bills (14 Dec 2023)

Mary Fitzpatrick: Deputy Ó Broin said that only 5% of the homeless budget is spent on homelessness prevention.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Scrutiny of Homeless Prevention Bill 2020, Tenancy Protection Bill 2023 and Dereliction and Building Regeneration Bill 2022: Private Members' Bills (14 Dec 2023)

Mary Fitzpatrick: This statement ignores the fact that the housing capital budget includes all of the tenant in situand social housing capital spend. A total of 5% of the homeless emergency accommodation budget is spent on prevention because that budget is for the provision of emergency accommodation. The budgetary spend on preventative measures is captured in the housing capital budget.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Scrutiny of Homeless Prevention Bill 2020, Tenancy Protection Bill 2023 and Dereliction and Building Regeneration Bill 2022: Private Members' Bills (14 Dec 2023)

Mary Fitzpatrick: I know but it is an important point.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Scrutiny of Homeless Prevention Bill 2020, Tenancy Protection Bill 2023 and Dereliction and Building Regeneration Bill 2022: Private Members' Bills (14 Dec 2023)

Mary Fitzpatrick: It is playing with numbers. It is a presentational matter but it is an important statement of fact that it is not only 5% of €300 million, which is a very large number dedicated to homeless services. It would be incorrect for this committee to allow an impression to be created that 5% of that €300 million of a homeless services budget is all that is being spent on homeless...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Scrutiny of Homeless Prevention Bill 2020, Tenancy Protection Bill 2023 and Dereliction and Building Regeneration Bill 2022: Private Members' Bills (14 Dec 2023)

Mary Fitzpatrick: Could Deputy O'Callaghan go back over what he said about four cases? Can the Deputy give us a bit more information on that?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Scrutiny of Homeless Prevention Bill 2020, Tenancy Protection Bill 2023 and Dereliction and Building Regeneration Bill 2022: Private Members' Bills (14 Dec 2023)

Mary Fitzpatrick: I cannot see how one would, and it would be difficult to, prove those three conditions. One would have to go through the sales process. I am trying to think this one through. If a landlord is saying he or she wants to evict more than ten tenancies at one time and is prevented from doing so because of the Tyrrelstown amendment, and the landlord wants to pursue it, the landlord has to claim...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Scrutiny of Homeless Prevention Bill 2020, Tenancy Protection Bill 2023 and Dereliction and Building Regeneration Bill 2022: Private Members' Bills (14 Dec 2023)

Mary Fitzpatrick: I suspect they were happy to allow this legislation to go to Second Stage because were it removed, there would be a cleaning up and probably strengthening of the legislation. It kind of creates a question, does it not?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Scrutiny of Homeless Prevention Bill 2020, Tenancy Protection Bill 2023 and Dereliction and Building Regeneration Bill 2022: Private Members' Bills (14 Dec 2023)

Mary Fitzpatrick: It creates an uncertainty that can potentially be exploited and not necessarily to great advantage. It can, however, create a lot of upset and uncertainty for tenants in the meantime.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Scrutiny of Homeless Prevention Bill 2020, Tenancy Protection Bill 2023 and Dereliction and Building Regeneration Bill 2022: Private Members' Bills (14 Dec 2023)

Mary Fitzpatrick: Does this not postdate any of those amendments that came in?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Scrutiny of Homeless Prevention Bill 2020, Tenancy Protection Bill 2023 and Dereliction and Building Regeneration Bill 2022: Private Members' Bills (14 Dec 2023)

Mary Fitzpatrick: We did, absolutely.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Scrutiny of Homeless Prevention Bill 2020, Tenancy Protection Bill 2023 and Dereliction and Building Regeneration Bill 2022: Private Members' Bills (14 Dec 2023)

Mary Fitzpatrick: We have no problem-----

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Scrutiny of Homeless Prevention Bill 2020, Tenancy Protection Bill 2023 and Dereliction and Building Regeneration Bill 2022: Private Members' Bills (14 Dec 2023)

Mary Fitzpatrick: I have also marked that as an issue. I support the thrust of the Bill; it is a great piece of work but on section 6, I do not see the merit in informing the Minister because he or she does not acquire properties. It could be strengthened by saying that where the site is admitted to the register, the local authority "shall" commence steps so the local authority is compelled to commence steps...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Scrutiny of Homeless Prevention Bill 2020, Tenancy Protection Bill 2023 and Dereliction and Building Regeneration Bill 2022: Private Members' Bills (14 Dec 2023)

Mary Fitzpatrick: I understand the focus on having "an" office within the local authorities but now that there are at least vacant housing officers in each local authority, would they not be better positioned to help expedite the process? The town centre first people, from my experience, are good and they work to good values and aspirations but it is a much broader concept type of work, whereas vacant housing...