Results 3,701-3,720 of 7,404 for speaker:Mick Wallace

Committee on Housing and Homelessness: Interim Report of Committee (26 Apr 2016)

Mick Wallace: I also agree. I do not think that bringing people before the committee and questioning and listening to them, as Deputy Durkan suggested, would do any of us any harm. Such engagement could take place in private session.

Committee on Housing and Homelessness: Interim Report of Committee (26 Apr 2016)

Mick Wallace: I apologise. Hearing about people's direct experiences can be very educational. We have all read a great deal about refugees. When I went to Calais the weekend before last and listened to people tell their stories, it gave me a different perspective. If we invite a few people to come before the committee who have direct experience of that, and the meeting can be in private session, we will...

Committee on Housing and Homelessness: Interim Report of Committee (26 Apr 2016)

Mick Wallace: I agree with Deputy Ó Broin. There is no doubt that what Deputy Durkan classified as unregulated third parties seem to have the power to run amok at the moment. The acting Minister for Finance, Deputy Michael Noonan, is probably the best Government individual to address that issue. We have to look at whether we can stop them from running amok and if we have any control over them and...

Committee on Housing and Homelessness: Interim Report of Committee (26 Apr 2016)

Mick Wallace: I would like to see the Minister for Finance, Deputy Michael Noonan, come in again, as well as Paul Sweeney from TASC, the Think-tank for Action on Social Change. We have a significant challenge in how we are going to fund a really good social housing programme. I do not believe we should be going down the PPP, public private partnership, route in which money costs 15 times more than what...

Committee on Housing and Homelessness: Interim Report of Committee (26 Apr 2016)

Mick Wallace: That is why I am saying that I want the Minister for Finance, Deputy Noonan, to come before us. Mr. Paul Sweeney has done some good work in this area and it would do us good to listen to him.

Committee on Housing and Homelessness: Interim Report of Committee (26 Apr 2016)

Mick Wallace: Yes. The land banking is going to come up in a number of sections. In section 3, on the private rental sector, when one strips away the clothes, one will see that the biggest primary problem with the affordability of the private sector is that we have a completely unregulated land-banking sector, which we do not tax. If we are serious, a "use it or lose it" policy will have to be adopted,...

Committee on Housing and Homelessness: County and City Management Association (26 Apr 2016)

Mick Wallace: I welcome the delegation and thank them for coming in. Mr. Cummins says social and private housing clients are competing for the same limited supply. Does he agree that this is directly linked to the fact that we have been using private housing to satisfy the demand for social housing through the rent supplement scheme? Mr. Cummins said we need to make every aspect of housing provision more...

Committee on Housing and Homelessness: County and City Management Association (26 Apr 2016)

Mick Wallace: My final question was on understaffing.

Committee on Housing and Homelessness: County and City Management Association (26 Apr 2016)

Mick Wallace: I remind the witnesses of two of my questions that were not answered; I am not inventing new ones. One was about compulsory purchase and whether local authorities have that power and the other was about the docklands. Foreign investment funds obviously have bought a lot of land there on which they are eager to put high-end offices, as is the National Asset Management Agency, NAMA. Do local...

Ireland's Stability Programme Update April 2016: Statements (27 Apr 2016)

Mick Wallace: Under the pact, EU Governments are supposed to bring their deficits to below 3% of GDP and debts are not supposed to be higher than 60% of GDP. However, the rules seem to allow some budget items to be stripped out, including the cost of extraordinary events. It looks like Italy, Lithuania, Austria, Spain and France are going to break the rules around the 3% in 2016 and yet Ireland insists...

Irish Water: Statements (27 Apr 2016)

Mick Wallace: The Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Deputy Simon Coveney, told us that we needed Irish Water because of the need to stop leaks and the waste of water. Why were the leaks not tackled immediately after Irish Water was set up? Some 40% of water in Dublin is still leaking into the ground. The Minister, Deputy Simon Coveney, said this was about conservation. The Government paid...

EU Migration and Refugee Crisis: Statements (28 Apr 2016)

Mick Wallace: I had planned on saying something other than what I am about to say because I find it difficult not to run across the Chamber. It was upsetting listening to the Minister. He said that we needed to prevent conflicts from starting. How in God's name can he say that? He is allowing Shannon to be used as a US military airbase. We are giving permits for munitions and armed troops to pass...

EU Migration and Refugee Crisis: Statements (28 Apr 2016)

Mick Wallace: No, he can talk away. He obviously does not listen even when he is looking at me.

EU Migration and Refugee Crisis: Statements (28 Apr 2016)

Mick Wallace: As the Minister knows, we were in Calais and Dunkirk two weeks ago.

EU Migration and Refugee Crisis: Statements (28 Apr 2016)

Mick Wallace: The smugglers there are the only people who are doing well. And they are doing really well. They are making more money now than they were six months ago because it has become more difficult to get in. Most people will get into Britain anyway. They just have to pay. Families are paying £20,000 to get to Britain from Dunkirk and Calais. As to where in God's name they are getting the...

Committee on Housing and Homelessness: Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government (28 Apr 2016)

Mick Wallace: I have a number of questions for the Minister relating to his contribution as well as an overall comment. I am not convinced that there is an acceptance of how bad things are. The way we have been dealing with this issue in recent years will not fix the problem. We are not making progress. People do not like to hear the word mentioned in this House, but there has been a neoliberal...

Committee on Housing and Homelessness: Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government (28 Apr 2016)

Mick Wallace: What is the figure in Wexford?

Committee on Housing and Homelessness: Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government (28 Apr 2016)

Mick Wallace: Okay. The Minister mentioned the site levy of 7% and said he would like to introduce it in 2017. I am glad to hear that. Does the Minister agree that the vacant site levy introduced before Christmas is a joke? The yield from it is so little it will not speed up the development of sites. Is the Minister going to tell me otherwise? If an individual has borrowed the money to land bank, the...

Committee on Housing and Homelessness: Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government (28 Apr 2016)

Mick Wallace: Huge projects take a long time, but it means that small projects do not. This country is full of small sites. Dublin city has loads of them. Would the Minister not admit that there is a major concentration by local authorities on the big bang effect of big sites? Why are the small sites not happening and why do we not get the small builders back in the game? There are small builders all...

Committee on Housing and Homelessness: Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government (28 Apr 2016)

Mick Wallace: My final question to the Minister is if he thinks it would be possible for the State to start funding these small projects and to help the builders build housing, be it 50% social, 50% affordable or even private? They need help.