Results 421-440 of 12,298 for speaker:Paul Murphy

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Water Charges Administration (4 Mar 2015)

Paul Murphy: 3. To ask the Minister for Environment, Community and Local Government the contingencies his Department is taking for mass non-payment of water charges; the plans in place to increase funding from the State to Irish Water; if an assessment has been carried out on the impact this would have on the EUROSTAT market test; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [9119/15]

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Water Charges Administration (4 Mar 2015)

Paul Murphy: Could I ask the Minister what contingencies the Department is taking for the possibility of mass non-payment of water charges; what plans are in place to increase funding from the State to Irish Water in that circumstance; and if an assessment has been carried out on the impact of such an occurrence on the EUROSTAT market test?

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Water Charges Administration (4 Mar 2015)

Paul Murphy: Was the answer "No", that the Minister has not considered the possibility that large numbers of people will refuse to pay and that will result in Irish Water failing the market corporation test and a major crisis for Irish Water and the strategy of off-balance sheet funding is falling apart? The Minister can provide all the options he wants for people to pay. He can make it as simple as he...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Water Charges Administration (4 Mar 2015)

Paul Murphy: Thanks a lot. Perhaps I should remind the Minister that his party stood in the previous general election on a platform of opposition to water charges. Any criticisms he can make about the need to have water charges will rebound on him and his previous position. Our position is clear: we are for the right of everybody to have free and quality water - I repeat, everybody in the State. We do...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Water Charges Administration (4 Mar 2015)

Paul Murphy: To return to the question-----

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Water Charges Administration (4 Mar 2015)

Paul Murphy: The opinion polls indicate that four in ten intend to pay, three in ten intend not to pay and the others say they do not know and they will be convinced by a campaign that advocates the way to defeat the water charges is through non-payment. Has the Minister seriously not considered the possibility that significant numbers will refuse to pay and what kind of crisis that causes for Irish Water?

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Water Charges Administration (4 Mar 2015)

Paul Murphy: I do.

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Water Charges Administration (4 Mar 2015)

Paul Murphy: We have met them.

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Private Rented Accommodation Costs and Controls (4 Mar 2015)

Paul Murphy: 5. To ask the Minister for Environment, Community and Local Government if he will report on his meeting with the Irish Property Owners Association; in view of rising rents and the homelessness crisis, his plans on addressing rising rents; his further plans to introduce rent controls; and the other reforms with regard to the rights of tenants, and the tax treatment of rental income, that are...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Private Rented Accommodation Costs and Controls (4 Mar 2015)

Paul Murphy: I ask the Minister to report on his reported meeting with the Irish Property Owners Association and, in view of rising rents and the homeless crisis, the plans to address the rent crisis affecting people. I understand reference was made at the Labour Party conference to something approaching rent controls but referred to as rent certainty. The Minister might provide more detail on that....

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Private Rented Accommodation Costs and Controls (4 Mar 2015)

Paul Murphy: The Government underestimates the seriousness of this problem. We cannot just decide to wait and build houses at the slow rate referred to in the Government's housing strategy. According to the CSO, almost one third of people rent accommodation. They are faced with rent increases of over 10% in Dublin in the past year. A recent report by the National Association of Building Co-operatives,...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Private Rented Accommodation Costs and Controls (4 Mar 2015)

Paul Murphy: In the real world, rent controls and rent caps do not lead to a decrease in supply. That exists in the world of neoliberal economists who simply look at supply and demand charts, but that is not how it happens. Landlords act as landlords as long as they can make an amount of money which can be made, including with rent controls. Rising rents are a key factor in the homelessness crisis....

Other Questions: Water Charges Administration (4 Mar 2015)

Paul Murphy: 9. To ask the Minister for Environment, Community and Local Government if he will report on meetings or contacts he or his Department has had with private landlord representative bodies and local authorities concerning the payment of water charges by their tenants; and the legislative changes or arrangements he is considering on the matter. [9101/15]

Other Questions: Water Charges Administration (4 Mar 2015)

Paul Murphy: My question is along the lines of the last one. The only straight answer we received to that question was that legislation would be brought before the House. That was not much of an answer. We could have that answer ourselves. Irish Water is providing different information for the Minister. In briefings it claims legislation will be introduced to provide in concrete terms that if...

Other Questions: Water Charges Administration (4 Mar 2015)

Paul Murphy: The Minister should be straight about whether he agrees with what Irish Water states in briefings to Deputies, that it is most likely that private landlords will be able to collect the money for bills, plus fines, from deposits, while councils will be able to attach them to rents. Does the Minister agree with this? Is that the way he sees it in pursuance of non-payment by tenants? He can...

Other Questions: Water Charges Administration (4 Mar 2015)

Paul Murphy: The Minister was so happy about registration levels that he said it was, all of a sudden, a soft deadline. Senator Lorraine Higgins famously declared on "Morning Ireland" that it was not a "drop dead" deadline. Such is the level of success in the Minister's registration rates that he has now gone for a fourth deadline. I do not think this speaks to his confidence in the level of...

Other Questions: Water Charges Administration (4 Mar 2015)

Paul Murphy: Is that part of the Minister's work?

Other Questions: Water Charges Administration (4 Mar 2015)

Paul Murphy: Only 17% of tenants have registered.

Written Answers — Department of Environment, Community and Local Government: Local Authority Housing Provision (4 Mar 2015)

Paul Murphy: 13. To ask the Minister for Environment, Community and Local Government the reason his Department’s estimates of the number of social housing units to be provided from a reformed Part V have fluctuated in the space of a few months, from 4,000 units during the period 2015 to 2020, that is, 666 units a year according to a press release on 2 October 2014, to 9,000 units during the period...

Written Answers — Department of Environment, Community and Local Government: Private Rented Accommodation Costs and Controls (4 Mar 2015)

Paul Murphy: 38. To ask the Minister for Environment, Community and Local Government if he has concerns regarding the role of vulture funds in increasing rents by over 20%, as reported recently (details supplied); and his views on his position as regards their growing involvement in the residential sector, as result of buying up loan books sold off by the banks or the National Asset Management Agency....