Results 7,221-7,240 of 26,897 for speaker:Richard Boyd Barrett

Committee on Environment, Culture and the Gaeltacht: Select Sub-Committee on the Environment, Community and Local Government: Housing (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2014: Committee Stage (4 Jun 2014)

Richard Boyd Barrett: If the PRTB is going to have responsibility for tenancies involving housing assistance payments, HAPs, and also for voluntary housing associations, why will it not apply to housing built under the terms of the capital assistance scheme, CAS?

Committee on Environment, Culture and the Gaeltacht: Select Sub-Committee on the Environment, Community and Local Government: Housing (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2014: Committee Stage (4 Jun 2014)

Richard Boyd Barrett: Why is provision for an exception being made in this section?

Committee on Environment, Culture and the Gaeltacht: Select Sub-Committee on the Environment, Community and Local Government: Housing (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2014: Committee Stage (4 Jun 2014)

Richard Boyd Barrett: I will take the Minister of State and her officials at their word. However, I wish to flag my concern to the effect that the same processes of recourse should be available to everybody.

Committee on Environment, Culture and the Gaeltacht: Select Sub-Committee on the Environment, Community and Local Government: Housing (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2014: Committee Stage (4 Jun 2014)

Richard Boyd Barrett: This is one of the most problematic and objectionable sections in the Bill. It goes to the heart of a policy shift which began with a document produced by the Department in either 2011 or 2012. That shift involved a move away from direct provision of council housing to a situation where the provision of social housing was outsourced to landlords. This was slightly glossed over by what is a...

Committee on Environment, Culture and the Gaeltacht: Select Sub-Committee on the Environment, Community and Local Government: Housing (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2014: Committee Stage (4 Jun 2014)

Richard Boyd Barrett: I take the point that there are many amendments to get through but this is a key one. I agree, as I am sure does almost everybody here, that streamlining areas under the local authority makes sense. There are many positive aspects to that move but suggesting that an interim or temporary solution is permanent and that being in a HAP arrangement is the same as getting a council house is...

Committee on Environment, Culture and the Gaeltacht: Select Sub-Committee on the Environment, Community and Local Government: Housing (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2014: Committee Stage (4 Jun 2014)

Richard Boyd Barrett: Will the Minister of State explain this for me? This section has to do with people in shared accommodation. Will the Minister of State explain what exactly is being done in this section, as it is unclear to me?

Committee on Environment, Culture and the Gaeltacht: Select Sub-Committee on the Environment, Community and Local Government: Housing (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2014: Committee Stage (4 Jun 2014)

Richard Boyd Barrett: Does that mean it is like a house share?

Committee on Environment, Culture and the Gaeltacht: Select Sub-Committee on the Environment, Community and Local Government: Housing (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2014: Committee Stage (4 Jun 2014)

Richard Boyd Barrett: I would like to underline that point. The rent caps do not work in large parts of this city and in other large urban centres. Currently, local authorities are breaching the caps, but they are denying that right to individuals in receipt of rent allowance. The council housing departments know the rent caps are unworkable and they are being forced into private arrangements with private...

Committee on Environment, Culture and the Gaeltacht: Select Sub-Committee on the Environment, Community and Local Government: Housing (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2014: Committee Stage (4 Jun 2014)

Richard Boyd Barrett: I heard on the grapevine that the Limerick phase is not going terribly well, but we shall see. I take the point the Minister of State makes about creating pressure in respect of the long-term solution, which is council housing. The more I think about this, the more I want to object. The Minister of State says this does not fix us to the rent caps. If there is flexibility and local...

Committee on Environment, Culture and the Gaeltacht: Select Sub-Committee on the Environment, Community and Local Government: Housing (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2014: Committee Stage (4 Jun 2014)

Richard Boyd Barrett: Will the Minister explain the logic of this provision? My priority and I suspect the priority of all members is the people who are being housed. It is proposed in section 38 that the local authority does not have an obligation to the landlord and that seems to fly in the face of the Minister's comments on preventing arrears through direct deduction. If the policy is to avoid top up...

Committee on Environment, Culture and the Gaeltacht: Select Sub-Committee on the Environment, Community and Local Government: Housing (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2014: Committee Stage (4 Jun 2014)

Richard Boyd Barrett: If that is the case, I do not understand the reason for this section as I do not see its logic. What is the reason for the provisions of the section?

Committee on Environment, Culture and the Gaeltacht: Select Sub-Committee on the Environment, Community and Local Government: Housing (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2014: Committee Stage (4 Jun 2014)

Richard Boyd Barrett: I do not wish to labour the point, but let me flag it as an issue for Report Stage.

Committee on Environment, Culture and the Gaeltacht: Select Sub-Committee on the Environment, Community and Local Government: Housing (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2014: Committee Stage (4 Jun 2014)

Richard Boyd Barrett: I think the landlord is coming down on the tenant for various reasons, whereas I think the landlord should be relating to the local authority. There is a grey and blurry area about the relationships between the tenant, landlord and local authority. This seems to feed into that uncertainty.

Committee on Environment, Culture and the Gaeltacht: Select Sub-Committee on the Environment, Community and Local Government: Housing (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2014: Committee Stage (4 Jun 2014)

Richard Boyd Barrett: I wish to flag an issue on section 39(3)(b) and (c). I think issues around 'the duty of care' are very serious. If a landlord pulls out of an arrangement with a local authority, what obligation does the local authority have to the tenant? Is it the same obligation, which I think it should be? Under section 39(3)(b) "the household is residing in the dwelling, the housing authority may...

Committee on Environment, Culture and the Gaeltacht: Select Sub-Committee on the Environment, Community and Local Government: Housing (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2014: Committee Stage (4 Jun 2014)

Richard Boyd Barrett: I wish to make the same point.

Committee on Environment, Culture and the Gaeltacht: Select Sub-Committee on the Environment, Community and Local Government: Housing (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2014: Committee Stage (4 Jun 2014)

Richard Boyd Barrett: Asking for a review of a decision made by the local authority and then saying that if a person challenges it, the official who will carry out the review will be more senior in the same department is fair enough as a first step. I do not cast aspersions on officials in any housing department, but let us be honest. They are all in the same department; they all know each other and there are...

Committee on Environment, Culture and the Gaeltacht: Select Sub-Committee on the Environment, Community and Local Government: Housing (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2014: Committee Stage (4 Jun 2014)

Richard Boyd Barrett: I am not a member of the committee.

Committee on Environment, Culture and the Gaeltacht: Select Sub-Committee on the Environment, Community and Local Government: Housing (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2014: Committee Stage (4 Jun 2014)

Richard Boyd Barrett: I think the Minister of State has confused us enough.

Committee on Environment, Culture and the Gaeltacht: Select Sub-Committee on the Environment, Community and Local Government: Housing (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2014: Committee Stage (4 Jun 2014)

Richard Boyd Barrett: Clear as mud. There is a lot of detail in that response that needs to be examined. I have a concern, although it may be covered in the detail of the Bill. People who are homeless, particularly those on the streets, often have difficulty in navigating the elaborate bureaucracy and processes that must be gone through in order to get into the system. I am worried about the axe that falls if...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Scrutiny of EU Legislative Proposals (4 Jun 2014)

Richard Boyd Barrett: I thank the witnesses for their presentation. They have helped advance somewhat my knowledge of these opaque financial entities. I will have to think long and hard before I understand everything. People can call me a Luddite but this is part of the creation of a global casino in speculation. These money markets are creating a casino in speculation that is at yet another remove from any...