Results 10,601-10,620 of 15,555 for speaker:Eoghan Murphy

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Homeless Figures: Minister for Housing, Planning and Local Government (20 Jun 2018)

Eoghan Murphy: On the number of staff who have been sanctioned by the Department in the last number of years to help in address of the housing issue, the allocation of housing resources within the local authorities is a matter for the local authorities. The Senator also mentioned local authority homeless clinics. If a need for them is identified, we will put funding in place for them. In terms of...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Homeless Figures: Minister for Housing, Planning and Local Government (20 Jun 2018)

Eoghan Murphy: I thank Deputy Barry for his questions and the points he made. On the recategorisation issue, some people are obsessed with the wrong subject matter. It is not about the numbers and the list, rather about the solutions. Having 10,000 families and people in emergency accommodation, such as hotels and bed and breakfast accommodation, is not politically sensitive for me. I find it morally...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Homeless Figures: Minister for Housing, Planning and Local Government (20 Jun 2018)

Eoghan Murphy: .A lot of people are doing a lot of work to put this together. They understand its importance. It is not as simple as the Deputy thinks it might be. People have spent some time on this and have communicated with all local authorities. We are starting to get returns which we want to collate in order to provide an accurate picture because we know that certain people will do their best to...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Homeless Figures: Minister for Housing, Planning and Local Government (20 Jun 2018)

Eoghan Murphy: I will have it when I have it. When I have it, I will get it to the committee as quickly as possible.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Homeless Figures: Minister for Housing, Planning and Local Government (20 Jun 2018)

Eoghan Murphy: I thank the Deputy for his questions and for acknowledging the hard work that has happened over the last year or more. I talk a lot with the front-line staff and know that people can sometimes feel that nothing is happening. A huge amount of work is going on and it is important to acknowledge that, and that we need to do more, and always recognise that the work does not stop. Presentations...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Homeless Figures: Minister for Housing, Planning and Local Government (20 Jun 2018)

Eoghan Murphy: The definition that we currently work off is from the 1988 Act. There are two criteria there. It puts it to the local authority to interpret those criteria and make a decision itself. An interesting thing from a bureaucratic point of view is that someone has to be declared as homeless before he or she can get supports that would prevent him or her from becoming homeless. That person might...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Homeless Figures: Minister for Housing, Planning and Local Government (20 Jun 2018)

Eoghan Murphy: I thank Deputy Boyd Barrett for his questions-----

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Homeless Figures: Minister for Housing, Planning and Local Government (20 Jun 2018)

Eoghan Murphy: Deputy Boyd Barrett should give them hell in there. Immigration is an important issue as well.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Homeless Figures: Minister for Housing, Planning and Local Government (20 Jun 2018)

Eoghan Murphy: I thank the Deputies for their questions. I will address Deputy Boyd Barrett's questions first. The Deputy makes a point about how stopping evictions will prevent people entering emergency accommodation. However, there are two issues here. One is that landlords could leave the rental market, which would result in a loss of supply and people being evicted because there would not be enough...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Homeless Figures: Minister for Housing, Planning and Local Government (20 Jun 2018)

Eoghan Murphy: I thank the Deputy. His comments on the HAP scheme are welcome and I share them. It is a real support and does meet people's needs. The private rental sector is necessary, as I have acknowledged, but it should not be as necessary as it is. These are the legacy issues the Government took up in 2011. We have been working to address them and are working ambitiously on Rebuilding Ireland,...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Homeless Figures: Minister for Housing, Planning and Local Government (20 Jun 2018)

Eoghan Murphy: We are doing a piece of work on the issue of overcrowding. It is due to come in the autum with the second piece of rent legislation. The first piece of legislation provided for those measures that we think we can implement more quickly because they are less complicated from a legislative point of view. We hope it will be easier to get agreement across the House in order that we can...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Homeless Figures: Minister for Housing, Planning and Local Government (20 Jun 2018)

Eoghan Murphy: I thank the Deputies for their questions. In answer to Deputy Ó Broin on the Central Statistics Office, CSO, that proposal or suggestion was put to me but I have not approached the CSO in that regard. It is interesting that one of the reports states that emergency accommodation should not be looked at as a catch-all for everyone who is vulnerable. There is sense in that because if...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Homeless Figures: Minister for Housing, Planning and Local Government (20 Jun 2018)

Eoghan Murphy: I will go back to the DRHE on that. My assumption is that was based on its interaction with individuals. I would like more detail in this report but I was keeping the DRHE under the hammer to get the report produced and delivered to me so that I could publish it. We know that more work needs to be done but a huge amount of work did go into this.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Homeless Figures: Minister for Housing, Planning and Local Government (20 Jun 2018)

Eoghan Murphy: I will finish my response to Deputy Ó Broin first. I am trying to read my own handwriting. In respect of bringing information into the public domain, Brendan Kenny did not say that people are still homeless. We have to be very careful here. He said they kept their priority because that was in line with the previous policy in the local authority. Louth County Council admitted that...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Homeless Figures: Minister for Housing, Planning and Local Government (20 Jun 2018)

Eoghan Murphy: That is not.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Homeless Figures: Minister for Housing, Planning and Local Government (20 Jun 2018)

Eoghan Murphy: With the other Louth numbers there was no risk of people going into emergency accommodation. We are talking about people in emergency accommodation, hotels and hostels, where there is a risk to their tenancy and of their being forced out onto the streets. That is not what we are talking about here. We are talking about people who are in houses, homes, who are safe. Deputy Ó Broin is...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Homeless Figures: Minister for Housing, Planning and Local Government (20 Jun 2018)

Eoghan Murphy: I told the Deputy that information is coming.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Homeless Figures: Minister for Housing, Planning and Local Government (20 Jun 2018)

Eoghan Murphy: The Deputy wanted us to have the meeting before we even had the information and he still wants to meet before we have the information.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Homeless Figures: Minister for Housing, Planning and Local Government (20 Jun 2018)

Eoghan Murphy: No I do not have all the information.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Homeless Figures: Minister for Housing, Planning and Local Government (20 Jun 2018)

Eoghan Murphy: I do not.