Results 261-280 of 2,180 for speaker:John Cummins

Seanad: Affordable Housing Bill 2021: Committee Stage (Resumed) (4 Jun 2021)

John Cummins: Senator Moynihan sat through the pre-legislative scrutiny of the Oireachtas joint committee and my understanding is exactly as she outlined to the House. Perhaps the term "affordable dwelling contribution" is confusing, but it is clear when read within the totality of the Bill that what is being referred to here is the equity stake that the State takes in the house. The Minister of State...

Seanad: Affordable Housing Bill 2021: Committee Stage (Resumed) (4 Jun 2021)

John Cummins: I do not think the legislation says that. The phrase "which shall not be unreasonably withheld" is used. That is a clear instruction to the council that it should not withhold consent unreasonably. As the Minister of State indicated, there is provision in this legislation to allow for a top-up loan for the extension of a property. We should encourage people in extending their homes to...

Seanad: Affordable Housing Bill 2021: Committee Stage (Resumed) (4 Jun 2021)

John Cummins: I can see what the amendment is trying to achieve. In the interest of aligning policy we should consider amendment No. 58, in particular, which references a 40-year period. My reason for saying so concerns the cost-rental equity loan, which is in place for approved housing bodies to provide cost-rental homes. Eight sites have been identified to provide 430 cost-rental units this year....

Seanad: Affordable Housing Bill 2021: Committee Stage (Resumed) (4 Jun 2021)

John Cummins: While I agree with what Senator Higgins has said, if we did not have a housing crisis and we had 20 years to ramp up scale, such as was the case in Austria after the Second World War, we could take the points made there and implement them to the letter of the law. However, approved housing bodies are on the State's balance sheet. We also have to be cognisant of the fact they do not have the...

Seanad: Affordable Housing Bill 2021: Committee Stage (Resumed) (4 Jun 2021)

John Cummins: I mean no disrespect to my colleagues but I believe there has been a fundamental misunderstanding of what cost rental is. Cost rental is defined by the cost of building, financing and maintaining a property now over 40 years as per the legislation. Not a single approved housing body, trust or co-operative, the things that we have added in, would commit to building properties over a 40-year...

Seanad: Affordable Housing Bill 2021: Committee Stage (Resumed) (4 Jun 2021)

John Cummins: I will start from where Senator Pauline O'Reilly left off and expand on the point. The State will intervene in this cost rental system and provide homes over a 40-year period. I do not think any of us will still be in this House in 40 years' time but there will be capacity to do much more at that point. Senator Moynihan suggested linking units that have paid off their building, management...

Seanad: Affordable Housing Bill 2021: Committee Stage (Resumed) (4 Jun 2021)

John Cummins: I will finish by saying it would not be cost rental if we were to accept the amendments being proposed.

Seanad: Right to Housing: Motion (4 Jun 2021)

John Cummins: I welcome the Minister of State to the House. I commend my colleague on tabling the motion. The joint Oireachtas committee had this discussion in November. We had Wayne Stanley, Rosemary Hennigan, Professor Gerry White and Rebecca Keatinge before the committee. They put forward comprehensive testimony on the importance of this and associated matters. In fairness, committee members put...

Seanad: Planning and Development (Amendment) (No. 3) Bill 2021: Second Stage (18 Jun 2021)

John Cummins: I welcome the Minister to the House and thank him and his officials for engaging with members of the Oireachtas joint committee on this Bill.I agree with the Minister that this Bill is urgent, that it is important that it is put through both Houses without delay and that we have a motion for earlier signature. I will focus on sections 2 to 6, inclusive, of the Bill, which deal with the...

Seanad: Affordable Housing Bill 2021: Report and Final Stages (18 Jun 2021)

John Cummins: I appreciate what Senator Higgins seeks to achieve with the amendment but it is not necessary to include it in this section or in primary legislation because this is something that happens anyway. Local authorities that are engaged in Part 8 processes to develop units must consider everything that is listed in the amendment. The local authorities, the LDA and all of these of organisations...

Seanad: Affordable Housing Bill 2021: Report and Final Stages (18 Jun 2021)

John Cummins: I disagree wholeheartedly with this amendment. A person who has been allocated a social house does not care whether it is built by a local authority, a private developer, the LDA or an approved housing body. Saying that we must build houses, affordable houses in the case of this amendment, in a certain way is an ideological position. Some local authorities will be able to ramp up the...

Seanad: Affordable Housing Bill 2021: Report and Final Stages (18 Jun 2021)

John Cummins: I have great respect for Senator Boyhan but I am surprised at his contribution. I am not suggesting he was attempting to mislead the House in his contribution but the figure of €450,000 relates to the ceilings for the shared equity scheme. What we are actually discussing here, in this section, is the local authority affordable purchase scheme. Thus, any references to or utterances...

Seanad: Affordable Housing Bill 2021: Report and Final Stages (18 Jun 2021)

John Cummins: I will make one brief point which I mentioned on Committee Stage. What we are doing here is aligning the existing cost rental equity loan term, in terms of the finance and arrangement for the same, which is at 40 years. By moving from 30 years to 40 years, we have aligned the whole process. If we were moving to 50 years in terms of what has been proposed in this amendment, it would be out...

Seanad: Affordable Housing Bill 2021: Report and Final Stages (18 Jun 2021)

John Cummins: I compliment Senator Higgins with regard to the original proposal on Committee Stage. The acceptance of the wording in this respect is further evidence that the Government takes very seriously the rents that will be charged at the outset under the cost rental model. It is our target to reduce the rents to the maximum possible, which is why we have spread the term over 40 years. That is why...

Seanad: Affordable Housing Bill 2021: Report and Final Stages (18 Jun 2021)

John Cummins: This comes back to some of the arguments we made earlier regarding arbitrary figures and points. Cost rental is defined as the cost of building, financing and the necessary and appropriate management costs. This is defined. It is what it is and it does not change regardless of whether a person's income is X or Y. This is the definition of cost rental. If we were to include the provisions...

Seanad: Affordable Housing Bill 2021: Report and Final Stages (18 Jun 2021)

John Cummins: I will be interested to hear what the Minister of State says. The points Senator Higgins has made are valid.The protection of the core price, the initial part, is not necessarily in the amendment being proposed, which is a flaw. Perhaps we can take account of what has been said in this Chamber, and that when this Bill is debated in the Dáil we ensure we protect the original core...

Seanad: Affordable Housing Bill 2021: Report and Final Stages (18 Jun 2021)

John Cummins: I have listened to Senator Warfield and Sinn Féin talk about the shared equity scheme, prior to the Bill even being published. They had written off this scheme and said it would do X, Y and Z, before the Bill was even published. We keep hearing the references to the London School of Economics. What one will not hear Senator Warfield referring to is the UK's audit office, the...

Seanad: An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business (22 Jun 2021)

John Cummins: I condemn in the strongest possible terms the recent instances of homophobia seen in Dublin and Waterford. Pride flags have been removed, straight pride posters have been erected and disgusting graffiti has been scrawled near a gay bar. The people behind these acts do not represent us. Their acts are shameful and wrong and we must stand firm against them and their prejudice. We have made...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: General Scheme of the Electoral Reform Bill 2020: Discussion (Resumed) (8 Jun 2021)

John Cummins: I would.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: General Scheme of the Electoral Reform Bill 2020: Discussion (Resumed) (8 Jun 2021)

John Cummins: As someone fortunate enough to have been elected to Waterford City Council when I was 21 - some 12 years ago now - I count myself lucky to have been one of those young people who did get involved in politics and made a change at local level. Younger people have been represented quite well across the party political spectrum in Waterford, but women not so much. I echo some of the earlier...