Results 6,961-6,980 of 11,114 for speaker:Damien English

Topical Issue Debate: Homeless Persons Supports (18 May 2017)

Damien English: I did actually, probably more so than most people here.

Topical Issue Debate: Homeless Persons Supports (18 May 2017)

Damien English: I know what I am talking about. I have seen rapid build and every type of build. The Deputy can trust me I have watched rapid build houses being built and sold for more than €500,000. Do not try to give the impression they are some sort of a pretend house, and not a real house or a permanent house, because that is not what they are. They are a genuinely good house.

Topical Issue Debate: Homeless Persons Supports (18 May 2017)

Damien English: There are many different types of rapid build construction. The Deputy said HAP is not working. It is only one of the solutions, and family hubs and purchasing houses through the Housing Agency and using houses through the sale and lease back scheme, are all options that bring in more houses, but the Deputy keeps insisting that HAP is not working. To me, HAP is a better scheme than the...

Topical Issue Debate: Homeless Persons Supports (18 May 2017)

Damien English: Can I finish please?

Topical Issue Debate: Homeless Persons Supports (18 May 2017)

Damien English: I would love it. That would be great. I will provide some figures for last year from the housing authority. It is worth noting that nationally in 2016, over 1,200 new social housing tenancies were awarded to homeless households. Furthermore, we expect that those families currently accommodated in hotels will primarily have their housing needs met through the housing assistance payment,...

Topical Issue Debate: Homeless Persons Supports (18 May 2017)

Damien English: More than 500 tenancies have been achieved to date in 2017. They are people presented new to being homeless and were found accommodation through the HAP scheme and other schemes. With regard to the family hubs, I have been in them and I ask the Deputy to go and have a look at some of them. I visited the Respond! hub and the Mater Dei facility, which will be ready in June. They are very...

Topical Issue Debate: Homeless Persons Supports (18 May 2017)

Damien English: In some cases, people who are in hotels might first transition to a family hub-----

Topical Issue Debate: Homeless Persons Supports (18 May 2017)

Damien English: -----but the intention still stands that by the end of June this year-----

Topical Issue Debate: Homeless Persons Supports (18 May 2017)

Damien English: -----those people in hotels will be out of hotels.

Topical Issue Debate: Hospital Consultant Recruitment (18 May 2017)

Damien English: I am, yes.

Topical Issue Debate: Hospital Consultant Recruitment (18 May 2017)

Damien English: I am here to answer the question raised by Deputy Jack Chambers. The Minister, Deputy Harris, had hoped to be present but as the Deputy is aware, the timing of this moved quite a bit today. It is normal practice for the Minister or one of his Ministers of State to cover these issues, and the Deputy knows that. To be fair, there is no point in him trying to go down that road because it is...

Topical Issue Debate: Hospital Consultant Recruitment (18 May 2017)

Damien English: Generally, they are here as often as possible. I am taking the matter on behalf of the Minister, Deputy Harris. I want to thank the Deputy for raising it and giving me the opportunity to provide clarification. I want to be clear, on behalf of the Minister for Health, that he expects the HSE to comply with statutory and policy requirements when filling consultant posts. He also...

Topical Issue Debate: Hospital Consultant Recruitment (18 May 2017)

Damien English: -----and would be on a division of the Medical Council register. They are also fully qualified to practise medicine. At a national level, health policy remains the development of a consultant provided service as per the report of the national task force on medical staffing, the Hanly report, and the reports of the strategic review of medical training and career structures, that is, the...

Topical Issue Debate: Hospital Consultant Recruitment (18 May 2017)

Damien English: I will be as brief as I possibly can. I did answer the question in detail and I explained to the Deputy all that has been done. The high level working groups have tried to address this and any concerns the Deputy has and deal with the process. We recognise that there are approximately 300 consultant posts that are difficult to fill due to geographical location or the nature of the...

Residential Tenancies (Housing Emergency Measures in the Public Interest) (Amendment) Bill 2016: Second Stage [Private Members] (18 May 2017)

Damien English: He is on his way. He is trying to be here.

Residential Tenancies (Housing Emergency Measures in the Public Interest) (Amendment) Bill 2016: Second Stage [Private Members] (18 May 2017)

Damien English: The rental sector needs to be an attractive option for tenants and a safe and viable investment choice for investors. Tenants need to have certainty that as long as they pay rent to meet their obligations they will be able to stay in the properties they are renting. Equally, landlords and investors, from the individual wishing to secure an income into the future to an institutional investor...

Residential Tenancies (Housing Emergency Measures in the Public Interest) (Amendment) Bill 2016: Second Stage [Private Members] (18 May 2017)

Damien English: The Deputy might be happy with that but we think that would greatly affect supply. During the debate on the rental strategy at Christmas, we tried to get a balance between supply and demand. It is all very fine to say that we should cut rents and keep them low. We want to keep rents as low as we possibly can but we also want to attract more investment into the sector. We had this...

Residential Tenancies (Housing Emergency Measures in the Public Interest) (Amendment) Bill 2016: Second Stage [Private Members] (18 May 2017)

Damien English: I am okay with Deputies who believe that but it is not possible to do that overnight. We are trying to ramp up building and we will get back to where we should be. As I said, local authorities should never have stopped building houses. We need to build houses but it takes a little time. We also need investment from the private sector because we need 25,000 or 30,000 houses to come on...

Residential Tenancies (Housing Emergency Measures in the Public Interest) (Amendment) Bill 2016: Second Stage [Private Members] (18 May 2017)

Damien English: It happened six or seven years ago.

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government: Housing Provision (23 May 2017)

Damien English: Pillar 5 of the Government's Rebuilding Ireland: Action Plan for Housing and Homelessness is specifically focused on Utilising Existing Housing Stock, with a key objective of ensuring that the existing vacant housing stock throughout the country and across all forms of tenure, in both the public and private sectors, is used to the optimum degree possible. In this regard, Action 5.1 of...