Results 8,501-8,520 of 11,348 for speaker:Colm Burke

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Report of the Review of the Operation of the Health (Regulation of Termination of Pregnancy) Act 2018: Discussion (31 May 2023)

Colm Burke: In the example I give there was two major units with different opinions and the second unit was correct in its interpretation.

Public Accounts Committee: Appropriation Accounts 2021
Vote 34 - Housing, Local Government and Heritage
Local Government Fund Account 2021
2021 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General
Chapter 6: Central Government Funding of Local Authorities (1 Jun 2023)

Colm Burke: I thank the witnesses for their presentation. I wish to raise several issues. Can we get a breakdown in real terms of the number of units AHBs have delivered in the past 12 months? The number delivered by local authorities has already been discussed. Regarding the cost-benefit analysis, local authorities are subject to strict spending rules and are under considerable scrutiny. Have we a...

Public Accounts Committee: Appropriation Accounts 2021
Vote 34 - Housing, Local Government and Heritage
Local Government Fund Account 2021
2021 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General
Chapter 6: Central Government Funding of Local Authorities (1 Jun 2023)

Colm Burke: Looking at what the approved housing bodies have delivered and what local authorities have delivered, are there lessons to be learned as regards why it is so slow for a local authority to deliver? If one looks at the timescale from the time an approved housing body identifies a project to finishing delivery and the time a local authority identifies a project and delivers, are there lessons...

Public Accounts Committee: Appropriation Accounts 2021
Vote 34 - Housing, Local Government and Heritage
Local Government Fund Account 2021
2021 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General
Chapter 6: Central Government Funding of Local Authorities (1 Jun 2023)

Colm Burke: Is that not the problem? At one stage, there were about eight different steps for a local authority to get a project from start to finish. I understand that the number of steps was reduced, with the same level of scrutiny remaining. I hear from officials about their frustration. They want to get on with a project but they have to jump a lot of hurdles. They are also frustrated by it.

Public Accounts Committee: Appropriation Accounts 2021
Vote 34 - Housing, Local Government and Heritage
Local Government Fund Account 2021
2021 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General
Chapter 6: Central Government Funding of Local Authorities (1 Jun 2023)

Colm Burke: Why has it taken that long? We started this project in 2016 and we are now talking about ratcheting it up. Why was that not done three, four or five years ago? Why is there such a reluctance to speed up the process? That is how it comes across.

Public Accounts Committee: Appropriation Accounts 2021
Vote 34 - Housing, Local Government and Heritage
Local Government Fund Account 2021
2021 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General
Chapter 6: Central Government Funding of Local Authorities (1 Jun 2023)

Colm Burke: For instance, in 2022, a target was set. How many local authorities reached their targets?

Public Accounts Committee: Appropriation Accounts 2021
Vote 34 - Housing, Local Government and Heritage
Local Government Fund Account 2021
2021 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General
Chapter 6: Central Government Funding of Local Authorities (1 Jun 2023)

Colm Burke: It is important that we have that figure because if one is setting targets, we are the Committee of Public Accounts and we want to deliver housing. Everyone in the House wants to make sure adequate housing is delivered. Should the Department not have figures on what local authorities reached their targets immediately available for the committee?

Public Accounts Committee: Appropriation Accounts 2021
Vote 34 - Housing, Local Government and Heritage
Local Government Fund Account 2021
2021 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General
Chapter 6: Central Government Funding of Local Authorities (1 Jun 2023)

Colm Burke: I am still asking how many local authorities reached their targets and how many did not.

Public Accounts Committee: Appropriation Accounts 2021
Vote 34 - Housing, Local Government and Heritage
Local Government Fund Account 2021
2021 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General
Chapter 6: Central Government Funding of Local Authorities (1 Jun 2023)

Colm Burke: How is engagement with authorities that did not meet their targets progressing? We must deliver. There is a demand. It is the case that someone has to oversee it. We rely on the Department to oversee local authorities. In fairness, councillors are frustrated as well because they might see their local authority not delivering. What can we do to make sure every local authority reaches its...

Public Accounts Committee: Appropriation Accounts 2021
Vote 34 - Housing, Local Government and Heritage
Local Government Fund Account 2021
2021 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General
Chapter 6: Central Government Funding of Local Authorities (1 Jun 2023)

Colm Burke: Another issue is the land bank that local authorities have. If Ms Stapleton had an assessment in the morning of the land bank each local authority has, what numbers of housing or residential units would those deliver in each local authority? Do we know what land bank each local authority has? What is their plan over three to four years in relation to those land banks? How many local...

Public Accounts Committee: Appropriation Accounts 2021
Vote 34 - Housing, Local Government and Heritage
Local Government Fund Account 2021
2021 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General
Chapter 6: Central Government Funding of Local Authorities (1 Jun 2023)

Colm Burke: On the cost analysis of housing being built by local authorities and housing agencies, is there an overall figure? Is there an average figure per local authority comparable to, for example, what is available on the private market? How does that compare, percentage-wise, for example, when a local authority gets 50 houses built and houses are being sold privately in estates quite close to it?...

Public Accounts Committee: Appropriation Accounts 2021
Vote 34 - Housing, Local Government and Heritage
Local Government Fund Account 2021
2021 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General
Chapter 6: Central Government Funding of Local Authorities (1 Jun 2023)

Colm Burke: Can I ask a final brief question? With regard to approved housing bodies, I came across a few cases where private estates were being built. When private estates are being built, a certain level have to go to local authority housing. The same rule does not apply where an approved housing body buys an entire estate, where a certain percentage has to be for private ownership. I have one in...

Public Accounts Committee: Appropriation Accounts 2021
Vote 34 - Housing, Local Government and Heritage
Local Government Fund Account 2021
2021 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General
Chapter 6: Central Government Funding of Local Authorities (1 Jun 2023)

Colm Burke: For our example, 85 houses were being built privately. There were many young people. Many had even paid deposits and suddenly the developer was approached by one approved housing body to buy the whole lot of the 85 houses. This was the only opportunity for people to get back into the area. Suddenly, they found it was taken from under them.

Public Accounts Committee: Appropriation Accounts 2021
Vote 34 - Housing, Local Government and Heritage
Local Government Fund Account 2021
2021 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General
Chapter 6: Central Government Funding of Local Authorities (1 Jun 2023)

Colm Burke: Is it not something that should be looked at?

Public Accounts Committee: Appropriation Accounts 2021
Vote 34 - Housing, Local Government and Heritage
Local Government Fund Account 2021
2021 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General
Chapter 6: Central Government Funding of Local Authorities (1 Jun 2023)

Colm Burke: Especially where there is an area with little opportunity for people to buy themselves and to move back into their own home area. Many would have been involved in sports organisations and community groups in the area. They could not get a house locally and had to move ten miles out, then when they got the opportunity, it was suddenly swiped from them again.

Public Accounts Committee: Appropriation Accounts 2021
Vote 34 - Housing, Local Government and Heritage
Local Government Fund Account 2021
2021 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General
Chapter 6: Central Government Funding of Local Authorities (1 Jun 2023)

Colm Burke: I thank the Chair.

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (1 Jun 2023)

Colm Burke: Could I raise the issue of the National Treatment Purchase Fund? It has overall responsibility for negotiating under the fair deal scheme. As the Chair knows, up to €1.5 billion, which is up from €1 billion, is now being expended on nursing home care. This matter also concerns work sent from the HSE to private hospitals. I am not sure whether we can get in witnesses from the...

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (1 Jun 2023)

Colm Burke: I agree that we need to examine this issue. When the scheme was introduced, over 20 years ago, I felt it would never work. It was fine when rents were reasonably low but it did not factor in the situation when rent would start to rise. It was a little different from about 2008 and 2009 on, when there was no money to buy housing, but the circumstances have now changed totally. There is now...

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (1 Jun 2023)

Colm Burke: And there is nothing to show for it.

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Third Level Education (1 Jun 2023)

Colm Burke: 93. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills if his Department and third-level colleges have engaged with the HSE and the Department of Health with a view to increasing the number of radiation therapy training places, taking into account that there are only 42 places at present; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [26602/23]