Results 4,061-4,080 of 9,814 for speaker:Steven Matthews

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Inflationary Costs in the Construction Industry: Discussion (28 Jun 2022)

Steven Matthews: Regarding those people who are just not interested, is it possible that we could apply some leverage in that regard?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Inflationary Costs in the Construction Industry: Discussion (28 Jun 2022)

Steven Matthews: Or taxation measures.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Inflationary Costs in the Construction Industry: Discussion (28 Jun 2022)

Steven Matthews: This is being done from an AHB perspective. Regarding private developers wanting to do something like this, they must of course have a level of profitability built-in. Would it be a viable and profitable enough proposition to attract them?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Inflationary Costs in the Construction Industry: Discussion (28 Jun 2022)

Steven Matthews: Sure. For others to be attracted to undertake this type of work, a level of profitability would be needed.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Inflationary Costs in the Construction Industry: Discussion (28 Jun 2022)

Steven Matthews: Yes

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Inflationary Costs in the Construction Industry: Discussion (28 Jun 2022)

Steven Matthews: Many materials were on site already in those cases. New building materials were not being brought in-----

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Inflationary Costs in the Construction Industry: Discussion (28 Jun 2022)

Steven Matthews: I wish to bring in Professor Hegarty because she has a great deal of expertise in building regulations, but I will come back to her on my second round of questions. I call Deputy Richard O’Donoghue.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Inflationary Costs in the Construction Industry: Discussion (28 Jun 2022)

Steven Matthews: Does the Deputy have a question?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Inflationary Costs in the Construction Industry: Discussion (28 Jun 2022)

Steven Matthews: We will come back to this. We have gone over by ten minutes. Ms Hegarty's submission contains a very good graphic on the evolution of space. We can discuss it as part of the reply to Deputy O'Callaghan's question.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Inflationary Costs in the Construction Industry: Discussion (28 Jun 2022)

Steven Matthews: There was a question to Ms Hegarty about sending on correspondences.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Inflationary Costs in the Construction Industry: Discussion (28 Jun 2022)

Steven Matthews: That is good. I am waiting for Deputy Ó Murchú to return from the Dáil, but can we go back to the question Deputy O'Callaghan asked about apartments. The evolution-of-space graphic Ms Hegarty has is interesting and shows starkly where we were in 2020 in terms of apartment sizes. I have often heard statements that people do not want to buy or live in apartments. It is often...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Inflationary Costs in the Construction Industry: Discussion (28 Jun 2022)

Steven Matthews: That is a fascinating aspect of this. We could talk about it for hours. I might come back to it in a while.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Inflationary Costs in the Construction Industry: Discussion (28 Jun 2022)

Steven Matthews: About a minute, but we can probably do another round.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Inflationary Costs in the Construction Industry: Discussion (28 Jun 2022)

Steven Matthews: I will come back when it goes round again, because we are now up to nearly 11 minutes for Deputy Ó Murchú. I will move to Deputy O'Donoghue. Then, I will take the second Green Party slot and then we will go into the third round. We will have time then for a couple of more questions. Deputy O'Donoghue if we keep it seven minutes then we all be happy.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Inflationary Costs in the Construction Industry: Discussion (28 Jun 2022)

Steven Matthews: Can you provide the details to the Chair?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Inflationary Costs in the Construction Industry: Discussion (28 Jun 2022)

Steven Matthews: It might be one of our working suggestions that we invite Housing Building Finance Ireland before the committee. Anything that we can do to add to the supply of housing and the financing of housing would be of benefit to all.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Inflationary Costs in the Construction Industry: Discussion (28 Jun 2022)

Steven Matthews: I will take the next slot. This point leads me to return back to Ms Hegarty. Mel Reynolds attended the committee and spoke about the difficulties in second and third-storey refurbishments in terms of streamlining building regulations. This is not about reducing standards but about streamlining the process so that one does not have to go through three separate hoops and, if there is a...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Inflationary Costs in the Construction Industry: Discussion (28 Jun 2022)

Steven Matthews: At those committee sessions, we saw figures from UCD or Technological University Dublin - I cannot remember which did the research - suggesting that there were probably up to 4,000 units available between the canals in the upper second or third floors on commercial streets. Why has it not been done? If this were simple and affordable, it would have been done a long time ago. Are those...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Inflationary Costs in the Construction Industry: Discussion (28 Jun 2022)

Steven Matthews: Many of those units would be ideal for the one- or two-bedroom housing that is in such demand. At one of our sessions, Mr. Odran Reid from Technological University Dublin said that it was not just about the quantum of units being brought back into the sector, but also the economic benefits that doing so would bring to towns and villages, restoring life and vibrancy to those that had been...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Inflationary Costs in the Construction Industry: Discussion (28 Jun 2022)

Steven Matthews: I am sorry, but I have to interrupt Ms Hegarty because my time slot is up. Next is Deputy Ó Broin, followed by Deputy McAuliffe.