Results 3,321-3,340 of 4,773 for speaker:Paudie Coffey

Urban Regeneration and Housing Bill 2015: Report Stage (Resumed) (8 Jul 2015)

Paudie Coffey: What Deputy Wallace proposes does not compare like with like. He compared the local property tax with the vacant site levy. To be clear, self-registration was an option for the local property tax because everyone was liable for the tax, whereas not everybody will be liable for the vacant site levy; it will only apply in certain cases, and selective criteria will apply. To expect everybody...

Urban Regeneration and Housing Bill 2015: Report Stage (Resumed) (8 Jul 2015)

Paudie Coffey: To delete these sections of the Bill would, in effect, remove the appeal mechanism open to an owner on the designation of a vacant site. I have gone to great lengths to outline that it is important with respect to property rights in the Constitution that we have recognition of due process and fair and transparent procedures. The process as outlined in the Bill is clear with the criteria as...

Urban Regeneration and Housing Bill 2015: Report Stage (Resumed) (8 Jul 2015)

Paudie Coffey: I oppose amendment No. 17, which seeks to amend the provisions in section 14, which provide the criteria by which the planning authority or tribunal may deem that a vacant site has a zero market value. The amendment proposes to delete the following criteria:(a) no market exists for the site, or (b) the site is situated on contaminated lands and the estimated costs of remedial works...

Urban Regeneration and Housing Bill 2015: Report Stage (Resumed) (8 Jul 2015)

Paudie Coffey: I recognise Deputy Ellis's concerns, but this exemption only applies where a market exists for a site and the remediation costs exceed the market value. If the remediation costs are way below the value of the site, there is nothing stopping the authority from designating the site and applying a levy. It is only where the market value is exceeded that this would apply.

Urban Regeneration and Housing Bill 2015: Report Stage (Resumed) (8 Jul 2015)

Paudie Coffey: I am perplexed to hear for the first time a levy being called an incentive. A levy is a levy. That is clear to anyone. We are opposing amendments Nos. 20 and 23, which amend section 16 by removing the provision that a reduced or zero rate of levy should apply in certain circumstances. We recognise that some sites are in negative equity and that loans attach to same. In the interests of a...

Urban Regeneration and Housing Bill 2015: Report Stage (Resumed) (8 Jul 2015)

Paudie Coffey: The Government's objective is to achieve a normalised construction sector following a large economic crash that affected every sector, but none more so than the construction sector, with an impact on housing provision and so on. The Bill is just one mechanism for addressing regeneration and housing provision in urban areas. As to the wider debate on housing, local authorities are being...

Urban Regeneration and Housing Bill 2015: Report Stage (Resumed) (8 Jul 2015)

Paudie Coffey: I oppose the amendment. It is unnecessary. The existing provisions in the Bill allow for what the Deputy is proposing. Section 23 outlines how the proceeds of the vacant site levy are to be used by the planning authority. It essentially ring-fences the proceeds to be used solely on the provision of housing on residential land or for the development and renewal of regeneration land. ...

Urban Regeneration and Housing Bill 2015: Report Stage (Resumed) (8 Jul 2015)

Paudie Coffey: Wide-ranging housing issues are being debated and discussed, but I will address some of the points about the amendment. As I outlined earlier, the intention and objective of the Bill is not to raise revenue. The primary objective is to incentivise and stimulate the beneficial use of vacant or dormant sites in our cities and towns. The purpose of the levy is to incentivise the owners of...

Urban Regeneration and Housing Bill 2015: Report Stage (Resumed) (8 Jul 2015)

Paudie Coffey: I just told the Deputy.

Urban Regeneration and Housing Bill 2015: Report Stage (Resumed) (8 Jul 2015)

Paudie Coffey: I did.

Urban Regeneration and Housing Bill 2015: Report Stage (Resumed) (8 Jul 2015)

Paudie Coffey: The Deputy was not listening. It is on the record.

Urban Regeneration and Housing Bill 2015: Report Stage (Resumed) (8 Jul 2015)

Paudie Coffey: I said the Bill gives them flexibility.

Urban Regeneration and Housing Bill 2015: Report Stage (Resumed) (8 Jul 2015)

Paudie Coffey: It is social housing or other amenities.

Urban Regeneration and Housing Bill 2015: Report Stage (Resumed) (8 Jul 2015)

Paudie Coffey: Deputy Coppinger must have a blind spot for the social housing strategy.

Urban Regeneration and Housing Bill 2015: Report Stage (Resumed) (8 Jul 2015)

Paudie Coffey: Some Deputies are speaking as if there are conspiracy theories and that the Government has a hidden agenda. I and many backbenchers in the Government come from working class areas and represent the very people about whom they speak. We are working day in, day out trying to assist the very same people in meeting the housing need that they have. We are not some kind of alien Deputies on this...

Urban Regeneration and Housing Bill 2015: Report Stage (Resumed) (8 Jul 2015)

Paudie Coffey: They have correctly said that we need more, and I have no problem with such a statement. There will be more allocations as resources allow. That is the type of realism the Government has to deal with. There is no magic bullet or pot of gold from which we can access funds. Deputy Boyd Barrett mentioned on Committee Stage some €1 billion fund that exists in the ether. I am not using...

Urban Regeneration and Housing Bill 2015: Report Stage (Resumed) (8 Jul 2015)

Paudie Coffey: What we all can agree on is that we need a greater supply of houses, whether they be social or private. This Bill is a mechanism to try to address some of the viability issues and also to incentivise the use of high-potential sites where there is high demand. It is but one way of responding to the housing crisis of which the Deputies speak. The Government is making other inventions as...

Urban Regeneration and Housing Bill 2015: Report Stage (Resumed) (8 Jul 2015)

Paudie Coffey: Perhaps the Deputies are not explaining themselves fully, but that is what I am hearing. I am of the view that every person should have an opportunity to own his or her own home in an affordable and sustainable way but until we address the supply issues, the affordability issues and the viability issues, that will not be possible. This Bill is an attempt to address that in a number of ways....

Urban Regeneration and Housing Bill 2015: Report Stage (Resumed) (8 Jul 2015)

Paudie Coffey: That is what we are doing.

Urban Regeneration and Housing Bill 2015: Report Stage (Resumed) (8 Jul 2015)

Paudie Coffey: I am just clarifying the matter for the Deputy. I apologise to the Chair.