Results 1,141-1,160 of 2,018 for speaker:Pat Casey

Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Local Government (Rates) Bill 2018: Committee Stage (26 Jun 2019)

Pat Casey: I am concerned that it exposes an owner to that charge. What the Minister of State has set out is not actually mentioned in the amendment.

Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Local Government (Rates) Bill 2018: Committee Stage (26 Jun 2019)

Pat Casey: I will briefly speak to the amendment. I put on the record that I am a commercial ratepayer so that everybody knows that. Wicklow went through it is revaluation process this year and March was an exceptionally busy month in my office. The purpose of this amendment to take the shock out of a revaluation system. As the Minister of Sate said, 40% of properties received an increase.

Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Local Government (Rates) Bill 2018: Committee Stage (26 Jun 2019)

Pat Casey: It was the 40% who received an increase who contacted my office not the 60% who did not receive an increase. While the Minister of State mentioned that properties could have had improvements carried out and extensions added, the critical factor is that a revaluation had not been carried out in Wicklow during the past 30 years. The fundamental problem is that revaluations do not take place...

Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Local Government (Rates) Bill 2018: Committee Stage (26 Jun 2019)

Pat Casey: There is a grand coalition now.

Local Government (Rates) Bill 2018: Instruction to Committee (2 Jul 2019)

Pat Casey: I thank the Minister of State, Deputy Phelan, for his statement and his engagement over the last number of years in regard to this Bill. My colleague, Deputy Cassells, outlined the critical role that commercial rates play in our local authorities. Fianna Fáil welcomes the majority of the provisions in this Bill, which seeks to modernise the commercial rates system and give our local...

Local Government (Rates) Bill 2018: Instruction to Committee (2 Jul 2019)

Pat Casey: Does Deputy Mattie McGrath want farmers to pay rates again?

Written Answers — Department of Health: Ambulance Service (2 Jul 2019)

Pat Casey: 106. To ask the Minister for Health the status of the review of ambulance services in Arklow and west County Wicklow; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [27759/19]

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Business of Joint Committee (2 Jul 2019)

Pat Casey: I propose that we go into private session to deal with some housekeeping matters. Is that agreed? Agreed.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Approved Housing Bodies: Discussion (2 Jul 2019)

Pat Casey: At the request of the broadcasting and recording service, members and visitors in the Public Gallery are requested to ensure that for the duration of the meeting their mobile phones are turned off completely or switched to airplane, safe or flight mode, depending on their device. It is not sufficient to put phones on silent mode, as this will maintain the level of interference with the...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Approved Housing Bodies: Discussion (2 Jul 2019)

Pat Casey: That is fine.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Approved Housing Bodies: Discussion (2 Jul 2019)

Pat Casey: We will start with Mr. Dunne.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Approved Housing Bodies: Discussion (2 Jul 2019)

Pat Casey: A lot of what Senator Murnane O'Connor said was not directly related to the reclassification.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Approved Housing Bodies: Discussion (2 Jul 2019)

Pat Casey: Yes, I am just giving the delegates the option. They might not have the answers for the Senator today because some of the questions were about specific issues. If they do not have them today, perhaps they might get back to her directly.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Approved Housing Bodies: Discussion (2 Jul 2019)

Pat Casey: I call Deputy Boyd Barrett to respond briefly, as Deputy Ó Broin wishes to come in.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Approved Housing Bodies: Discussion (2 Jul 2019)

Pat Casey: I thank the Deputy. As happens, we end up straying into other areas. Deputy Ó Broin wanted to come back in.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Approved Housing Bodies: Discussion (2 Jul 2019)

Pat Casey: I have a few brief questions. I thank the witnesses for their submissions. Sometimes when we sit here we get caught up in all the red tape and bureaucracy of everything. It is very hard to understand that throughout Europe the equivalent of approved housing bodies are delivering social housing off-balance-sheet. We sit here and ask what is the difference between them and us. Mr. Hannigan...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Approved Housing Bodies: Discussion (2 Jul 2019)

Pat Casey: This is a fundamental issue that radically needs to be solved as quickly as possible. Based on this ruling, all private funding received is the State's responsibility.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Approved Housing Bodies: Discussion (2 Jul 2019)

Pat Casey: The impact on the delivery of housing, as everybody has said, whether we agree in principle or not, is that we now rely more and more on the likes of the Housing Alliance to deliver social housing for the State. We all have different views as to whether it should be this way. I cannot understand how private funding is now part of the fiscal space. Getting into the technical end of why it...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Approved Housing Bodies: Discussion (2 Jul 2019)

Pat Casey: Why are we so different from the rest of Europe? This is what is frustrating. We read reports on how social housing is delivered throughout Europe via various models that are all off-balance-sheet. They all have vehicles that deliver social and affordable housing off-balance-sheet but in this country we do not seem to be able to strike that balance. Why is this?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Approved Housing Bodies: Discussion (2 Jul 2019)

Pat Casey: From my ignorant point of view, I just do not understand why we cannot resolve this. Everybody here is agreed, as is the Department, that this needs to be fixed. It is in the Department's interest because if it fixes this it will take this debt out of its fiscal space and will give it the money to spend on the overrun on the children's hospital. I am disappointed to see that the level of...