Results 5,681-5,700 of 8,015 for speaker:Jonathan O'Brien

Public Accounts Committee: Vote 34: Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government (8 Mar 2018)

Jonathan O'Brien: If we are saying that a RAS property is up to standard on day 1, why do we have people coming into our constituency offices who have been in RAS properties for less than six, 12 or 18 months with complaints that the property is not up to standard? Issues include no heating and in some cases, no hot water. In some cases there are windows which cannot be opened. Tenants are actually exiting...

Public Accounts Committee: Vote 34: Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government (8 Mar 2018)

Jonathan O'Brien: I will finish on the issue of housing. I will reiterate that I am extremely uncomfortable with spending €300 million on HAP this year when we have no idea what standard of accommodation we are providing to people. It is bizarre. It is something the Department needs to get a grip on very fast. It is not acceptable that that amount of money is being spent on private landlords who are...

Public Accounts Committee: Vote 34: Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government (8 Mar 2018)

Jonathan O'Brien: Housing PPPs.

Public Accounts Committee: Vote 34: Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government (8 Mar 2018)

Jonathan O'Brien: And the number of properties.

Public Accounts Committee: Vote 34: Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government (8 Mar 2018)

Jonathan O'Brien: The majority of PPPs are not in housing. They are primarily in education and roads, although maybe not so much in roads nowadays. There are still a number of housing PPPs, perhaps on the regeneration side and house building. One of the issues I have with PPPs is that we are unable to get any cost-benefit analysis of PPPs so we do not know if we are getting value for money. It is an issue...

Public Accounts Committee: Vote 34: Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government (8 Mar 2018)

Jonathan O'Brien: So I have to come to another meeting.

Public Accounts Committee: Vote 34: Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government (8 Mar 2018)

Jonathan O'Brien: So I have to come to another meeting.

Public Accounts Committee: Vote 34: Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government (8 Mar 2018)

Jonathan O'Brien: Will Mr. McCarthy comment briefly on how much the Department spent on PPPs for housing this year or last year, if he has the figures?

Public Accounts Committee: Vote 34: Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government (8 Mar 2018)

Jonathan O'Brien: As Accounting Officer for the Department, does Mr. McCarthy believe we should be getting a cost-benefit analysis of them? Would he like to get them?

Public Accounts Committee: Vote 34: Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government (8 Mar 2018)

Jonathan O'Brien: I appreciate it will be dealt with at the next meeting but the difficulty I have is even when one looks at the risk cushion, I could not get information on how it is calculated. That is a worry. We are talking about risk cushions but I could not find out how they are calculated. I am quite willing to leave it until the next meeting but I want to flag it. I was not aware it was coming up...

Public Accounts Committee: Vote 34: Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government (8 Mar 2018)

Jonathan O'Brien: Yes, within the programme.

Public Accounts Committee: Vote 34: Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government (8 Mar 2018)

Jonathan O'Brien: We know it did not go to voluntary and co-operative housing because there was a saving there as well. We know it has not gone to subsidies and allowances. The only place it could have gone to is local authority housing and I presume most of that went to some of the housing supports.

Public Accounts Committee: Vote 34: Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government (8 Mar 2018)

Jonathan O'Brien: The savings we made in other areas went to purchases.

Public Accounts Committee: Vote 34: Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government (8 Mar 2018)

Jonathan O'Brien: It was up by about €4.4 million.

Public Accounts Committee: Vote 34: Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government (8 Mar 2018)

Jonathan O'Brien: Do those savings have to be spent within that particular programme?

Public Accounts Committee: Vote 34: Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government (8 Mar 2018)

Jonathan O'Brien: There is a Government cap of 10%.

Public Accounts Committee: Vote 34: Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government (8 Mar 2018)

Jonathan O'Brien: Is that 10% across all Departments?

An Bille um an Séú Leasú is Tríocha ar an mBunreacht 2018: An Dara Céim - Thirty-sixth Amendment of the Constitution Bill 2018: Second Stage (9 Mar 2018)

Jonathan O'Brien: I welcome the opportunity to speak on this Bill. I pay tribute to the Minister for Health, Deputy Harris, for ensuring that it was debated at the earliest opportunity. As he said in his own contribution this morning, it is unusual for us to be here on a Friday, but I do not believe that anybody in this House or in the Oireachtas had any complaints about sitting today to begin this debate on...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Public Sector Pay (22 Mar 2018)

Jonathan O'Brien: A note was sent to the Ceann Comhairle's office requesting that I be allowed to take Question No. 2 on behalf of Deputy Doherty as he is at a meeting this morning of the Joint Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and the Taoiseach.

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: National Lottery Licence Sale (22 Mar 2018)

Jonathan O'Brien: Why are unclaimed lottery prizes no longer returned to the prize fund and will the Minister make a statement on the matter?