Results 25,361-25,380 of 40,897 for speaker:Simon Coveney
- Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Local Authority Housing Provision (23 Feb 2017)
Simon Coveney: The Deputy said there is no money being made available.
- Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Local Authority Housing Provision (23 Feb 2017)
Simon Coveney: I do not care what it is telling him. He should let me give him the facts.
- Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Local Authority Housing Provision (23 Feb 2017)
Simon Coveney: On 17 February over €4 million was approved for 25 social houses in Knockanrawley. On the same day over €4 million was approved for Mill Road in Thurles; almost €1.5 million in Newport and over €100,000 for Treacy Park in Carrick-on-Suir. On one day, which was only a few days ago, €10 million was made available for schemes that the Deputy says councils...
- Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Local Authority Housing Provision (23 Feb 2017)
Simon Coveney: I am not aware of a single scheme in the country that has been refused funding where a local authority has looked for it since I came into office.
- Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Local Authority Housing Provision (23 Feb 2017)
Simon Coveney: Money is available. If there are blockages we need to solve them. That is why we have a housing delivery office-----
- Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Local Authority Housing Provision (23 Feb 2017)
Simon Coveney: The Deputy said a few minutes ago that funding was the problem. I am telling him it is not.
- Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Rent Controls (23 Feb 2017)
Simon Coveney: My immediate response is that it would be a very foolish landlord who started to put up rents significantly in a town like Maynooth because that will guarantee that it will come under the rent pressure zone designations. It would be very counterproductive if the landlords' concern is the ability to increase rent. On 24 January 2017, in accordance with section 24A of the Residential...
- Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Rent Controls (23 Feb 2017)
Simon Coveney: It would not have made any difference in this case if we had decided to link the limitations on rent increases in rent pressure zones to the consumer price index, rather than setting a 4% limit as we have done. When we were drawing up the criteria to be used to determine whether an area would qualify to be designated as a rent pressure zone, we moved away from the process of assessing on the...
- Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Rent Controls (23 Feb 2017)
Simon Coveney: When we are designating an area as a rent pressure zone, we need to know that there has been a sustained and unaffordable level of rental inflation over a period and that the rents in the area are very high by comparison with the national average. If there is a sustained problem in Maynooth, it is likely to qualify at some stage in the not too distant future.
- Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Rent Controls (23 Feb 2017)
Simon Coveney: The application of these restrictions across the board nationally would have had extraordinary effects in some parts of the country where the provision of rental accommodation is not viable as a result of significant falls in property prices and rental values in recent years. One of those effects would essentially have been to put a ceiling on those very low values. This would have...
- Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Rent Controls (23 Feb 2017)
Simon Coveney: There must be legal grounds for eviction. There are now extended notice periods in these circumstances. The legislation we introduced recently strengthened the security of tenure provisions.
- Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Rent Controls (23 Feb 2017)
Simon Coveney: It is now six years rather than four years. If landlords are abusing that, we need to hear about it and the RTB needs to hear about it. For the record-----
- Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Rent Controls (23 Feb 2017)
Simon Coveney: -----there has been a significant increase in the number of complaints that have come to the RTB since the introduction of the rent pressure zones. As a result of the profile of that debate, I think both landlords and tenants have a better understanding of their own rights. I think that is a good thing.
- Other Questions: Local Authority Housing (23 Feb 2017)
Simon Coveney: I will try to follow Deputy Coppinger by staying within the specified time. The Deputy and I have debated this issue previously. I think we need to take multiple approaches to the provision of social housing. In addition to developing classic social housing projects on public land and actively pursuing Part V, we should use public land more strategically to drive a new approach involving a...
- Other Questions: Local Authority Housing (23 Feb 2017)
Simon Coveney: There will always be a dividend and a return for the State. It is up to us to ensure we maximise that dividend, in particular to increase the supply of social housing.
- Other Questions: Local Authority Housing (23 Feb 2017)
Simon Coveney: I do not know how the Deputy knows this, as O'Devaney Gardens has not yet been signed off. I do not know how she knows how much people will pay.
- Other Questions: Local Authority Housing (23 Feb 2017)
Simon Coveney: What we have agreed in principle with other political parties, including Fianna Fáil, Sinn Féin and others, on O'Devaney Gardens is to use it as an example of a new approach to delivering communities of mixed tenure. These will have 30% social housing and 20% for affordable rental. It will not be just for market rents; that would contradict the term "affordable rental" in that...
- Other Questions: Local Authority Housing (23 Feb 2017)
Simon Coveney: The Deputy and I seem to fundamentally disagree on one issue; I believe it is good to have mixed tenure developments but the Deputy does not.
- Other Questions: Local Authority Housing (23 Feb 2017)
Simon Coveney: It looks as if we must agree to disagree on that.
- Other Questions: Local Authority Housing (23 Feb 2017)
Simon Coveney: It was not a good thing the last time we built thousands of social houses, when we showed the country could do that, and we must get that capacity in place again. This time, when we add another 47,000 to 50,000 social houses to the social housing stock, I want them to be intermingled with private housing and affordable rental accommodation. Family sizes are different, demands are different...