Results 7,321-7,340 of 8,015 for speaker:Jonathan O'Brien

Public Accounts Committee: 2017 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 34 - Housing, Planning and Local Government (28 Feb 2019)

Jonathan O'Brien: The local authorities built an additional 1,054 houses last year.

Public Accounts Committee: 2017 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 34 - Housing, Planning and Local Government (28 Feb 2019)

Jonathan O'Brien: No, I am talking about the local authority direct build units.

Public Accounts Committee: 2017 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 34 - Housing, Planning and Local Government (28 Feb 2019)

Jonathan O'Brien: I will use my six minutes to tease out some of the issues that local authorities see in the provision of housing. I have no doubt that if it was up to them, they would house everyone on their lists in the morning. I am not suggesting there is some conspiracy to keep people on lists. What are the main barriers the witnesses see in their positions on local authorities? Is the main issue...

Public Accounts Committee: 2017 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 34 - Housing, Planning and Local Government (28 Feb 2019)

Jonathan O'Brien: In recent weeks, we have heard a great deal in the media about politicians objecting to housing developments. Is that something local authority chief executives see in their own areas, or is not such a big issue?

Public Accounts Committee: 2017 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 34 - Housing, Planning and Local Government (28 Feb 2019)

Jonathan O'Brien: In Mr. Murray's experience, is the objection to the housing itself or to the type of development? I know that in some cases people have issues concerning road access or traffic management. The problem may not be the housing development itself.

Public Accounts Committee: 2017 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 34 - Housing, Planning and Local Government (28 Feb 2019)

Jonathan O'Brien: I imagine one of the difficulties with acquisitions or with relying on the private sector to build assets and then buying them, that is, the use of turnkeys, is a poor mix of developments. Mr. Murray can correct me if I am wrong. In Cork, 50% of the housing waiting list is made up of single people. We are not building any properties to cater for that cohort. Most of the turnkey...

Public Accounts Committee: 2017 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 34 - Housing, Planning and Local Government (28 Feb 2019)

Jonathan O'Brien: Is downsizing an issue in the local authorities in Mr. Murray's area or from his experience of dealing with other city and county managers? Some of the evidence I have is that we have individuals in three and four bedroom properties who wish to downsize and are finding it very difficult to do that due to red tape and so on.

Public Accounts Committee: 2017 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 34 - Housing, Planning and Local Government (28 Feb 2019)

Jonathan O'Brien: They may need assisted living.

Public Accounts Committee: 2017 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 34 - Housing, Planning and Local Government (28 Feb 2019)

Jonathan O'Brien: I want to ask a few questions for the purposes of getting information. I am pretty sure of the answers but I want to have them confirmed. If a local authority is a net beneficiary of the local property tax and it decides to cut the tax, does this come out of the authority's discretionary funding and it is not given the extra?

Public Accounts Committee: 2017 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 34 - Housing, Planning and Local Government (28 Feb 2019)

Jonathan O'Brien: I presume this is the same if the local authority is a net contributor or decides to cut it: everything comes from the authority's own discretionary funding.

Public Accounts Committee: 2017 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 34 - Housing, Planning and Local Government (28 Feb 2019)

Jonathan O'Brien: The funding itself is pretty complicated. There are many different streams of funding coming into local authorities from various Departments and agencies and I want to touch on some of them. I was looking, for instance, at the total funding that goes into local government from across all Departments, including the local property tax. We are almost back up to the 2011 levels of funding. It...

Public Accounts Committee: 2017 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 34 - Housing, Planning and Local Government (28 Feb 2019)

Jonathan O'Brien: The parliamentary question referred to all central funding to local authorities. I presume this includes capital funding also.

Public Accounts Committee: 2017 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 34 - Housing, Planning and Local Government (28 Feb 2019)

Jonathan O'Brien: In 2011, the total funding going into the Cork County Council area was €121 million. Now it is only €70 million. That is a significant difference.

Public Accounts Committee: 2017 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 34 - Housing, Planning and Local Government (28 Feb 2019)

Jonathan O'Brien: It was 2011 when the funding was €121 million. The actual funding for 2018 - at 31 October - which was in the parliamentary question-----

Public Accounts Committee: 2017 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 34 - Housing, Planning and Local Government (28 Feb 2019)

Jonathan O'Brien: I will now turn to the funding that comes from various Departments. I am aware, for instance, how it works with housing. If the local authority has a housing project it wants to get done, the local authority funds that and applies to the Department for reimbursement. This is the way it works currently, is it not?

Public Accounts Committee: 2017 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 34 - Housing, Planning and Local Government (28 Feb 2019)

Jonathan O'Brien: Would that be the same for all Departments, for example, with road projects and road upgrades?

Public Accounts Committee: 2017 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 34 - Housing, Planning and Local Government (28 Feb 2019)

Jonathan O'Brien: Will a representative from the County and City Management Association, CCMA, explain how this system works for its members? From experience I am aware that we had periods of delay between the council having to pay out for a project and getting the reimbursement. It sometimes could be nine months by the time we had put in all the paperwork and got the money. How do council managers bridge...

Public Accounts Committee: 2017 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 34 - Housing, Planning and Local Government (28 Feb 2019)

Jonathan O'Brien: When I was on the local authority I recall there would be a long lag. Is that gone now?

Public Accounts Committee: 2017 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 34 - Housing, Planning and Local Government (28 Feb 2019)

Jonathan O'Brien: That is good. On other projects for which councils can apply for funding, I remember in my day on the local authority, adaptation grants required the council to come up with 50% of the funding and the Department would come up with the other 50%. Is this still the case?

Public Accounts Committee: 2017 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 34 - Housing, Planning and Local Government (28 Feb 2019)

Jonathan O'Brien: Would the CCMA perceive council management being obliged to come up with some of the funding upfront as a barrier to works taking place or to works the councils would like to see take place?