Results 30,541-30,560 of 40,897 for speaker:Simon Coveney
- Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (28 Mar 2019)
Simon Coveney: -----which will provide more protection for tenants.
- Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (28 Mar 2019)
Simon Coveney: One cannot take a simplistic view of being for tenants and against landlords, or vice versa. We need landlords in the market. It needs to be viable for landlords to operate in and predictable as a marketplace. We also need more protections for tenants. When I was Minister for Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government, I introduced many extra protections for tenants, to which the...
- Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (28 Mar 2019)
Simon Coveney: We need to do more, through legislation, to protect tenants and keep them in their homes without driving landlords out of the market because that would undermine what we are trying to achieve, which is to increase supply. Both things must be factored into policy. Unfortunately, Sinn Féin focuses on one side of the argument only. In time that would create an even bigger problem, if we...
- Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (28 Mar 2019)
Simon Coveney: I am not hearing Deputy Pearse Doherty more clearly just because he is shouting. We consider proposals that come from Sinn Féin and other parties and test them inside and outside the House. The Deputies paint this as though the Government does not want to solve the problem.
- Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (28 Mar 2019)
Simon Coveney: The truth is that what the Deputies propose will not work. We know it will not work.
- Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (28 Mar 2019)
Simon Coveney: The Deputy is not the leader today. We know his proposals will not work legally or practically.
- Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (28 Mar 2019)
Simon Coveney: If we thought the proposal would work, we would support it.
- Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (28 Mar 2019)
Simon Coveney: We will instead introduce proposals that we believe will work and that will provide more protections for tenants-----
- Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (28 Mar 2019)
Simon Coveney: -----and, at the same time, ensure there will be a marketplace where landlords will continue to provide more supply, which is what is needed. The Government was the first ever to introduce rent caps, by limiting increases to 4% per year in the areas where they are needed-----
- Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (28 Mar 2019)
Simon Coveney: Intervention in the market, therefore, is not something from which we shy away but it has to work.
- Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (28 Mar 2019)
Simon Coveney: Unfortunately, however, what the Deputies propose over and over again may sound good in a press release but when tested, it does not stand up, and this is another example of that.
- Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (28 Mar 2019)
Simon Coveney: The Deputy should stop pretending that there are easy solutions when he knows that there are not.
- Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (28 Mar 2019)
Simon Coveney: I am focusing on solutions; the Deputy is focusing on drama, as usual. Of course, I am conscious that 10,000 people will be in emergency accommodation tonight. I am not happy about that and the Government should not be either, but we will change it. We must focus, however, on where the problem is. Through the Rebuilding Ireland programme, we are delivering significantly more supply year...
- Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (28 Mar 2019)
Simon Coveney: Some of the Deputy's proposals are about as credible as the numbers he gives. Last year, 4,251 social houses were built, not 2,000.
- Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (28 Mar 2019)
Simon Coveney: These are all social houses and the Deputy knows that, even though he likes to spin the figures in the other direction.
- Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (28 Mar 2019)
Simon Coveney: It is increasing and will continue to increase this year, next year and the year after, so that we add 50,000 social houses to the housing stock over the lifetime of Rebuilding Ireland. That is exactly what we are trying to achieve. Freezing rents across the country overnight may provide temporary reassurance to tenants but it will not solve this problem because it will fundamentally...
- Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (28 Mar 2019)
Simon Coveney: What we are trying to do and spent many hours debating is to ensure that we introduce appropriate measures to limit rent increases in the parts of the country where there is the most pressure-----
- Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (28 Mar 2019)
Simon Coveney: -----which is now the majority of rental properties. It is starting to work in many areas.
- Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (28 Mar 2019)
Simon Coveney: We need to do more work, and we recognise that, to move beyond the current additional protections that we have provided for tenants and the powers that we have given to the Residential Tenancies Board to protect tenants more comprehensively. As I have said repeatedly this morning, the Minister, Deputy Eoghan Murphy, will bring proposals in that regard to Cabinet next week.
- Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (28 Mar 2019)
Simon Coveney: I share the Deputy's frustration on this issue. She has asked this question before in this House and many other public representatives for Galway have also raised a lot of frustration with regard to this issue. As outlined and confirmed this week by my ministerial colleague, Deputy Finian McGrath, in a Topical Issue debate, the HSE has been obliged to terminate the procurement process to...