Results 11,841-11,860 of 32,978 for speaker:Catherine Connolly

Public Accounts Committee: 2017 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Chapter 10 - Funding and Oversight of Approved Housing Bodies
Vote 34 - Housing, Planning and Local Government
2017 Financial Statements - Housing Agency (25 Oct 2018)

Catherine Connolly: How many houses has the Housing Agency purchased? It changes. Under the €70 million, I see a figure of 487. I see a different figure of 500 and something, and then a different figure. How many houses, apartments or units has the agency bought under the €70 million plus?

Public Accounts Committee: 2017 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Chapter 10 - Funding and Oversight of Approved Housing Bodies
Vote 34 - Housing, Planning and Local Government
2017 Financial Statements - Housing Agency (25 Oct 2018)

Catherine Connolly: How many-----

Public Accounts Committee: 2017 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Chapter 10 - Funding and Oversight of Approved Housing Bodies
Vote 34 - Housing, Planning and Local Government
2017 Financial Statements - Housing Agency (25 Oct 2018)

Catherine Connolly: The witness tells us it is 487 and the annual report tells us 536. I have a different figure from somewhere else. Specifically under this programme we are told the agency has purchased 536 houses and apartments under the rolling fund. Under the public statement, the figure is 487. Precisely how many apartments and units has the agency purchased? Is there a difference or a distinction...

Public Accounts Committee: 2017 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Chapter 10 - Funding and Oversight of Approved Housing Bodies
Vote 34 - Housing, Planning and Local Government
2017 Financial Statements - Housing Agency (25 Oct 2018)

Catherine Connolly: Does Mr. O'Connor have the answer?

Public Accounts Committee: 2017 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Chapter 10 - Funding and Oversight of Approved Housing Bodies
Vote 34 - Housing, Planning and Local Government
2017 Financial Statements - Housing Agency (25 Oct 2018)

Catherine Connolly: Please clarify that. My final question is under research expenditure. This figure for research has jumped from €249,731 up to €320,516. Research is great. Did the Housing Agency do any research on Airbnb?

Public Accounts Committee: 2017 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Chapter 10 - Funding and Oversight of Approved Housing Bodies
Vote 34 - Housing, Planning and Local Government
2017 Financial Statements - Housing Agency (25 Oct 2018)

Catherine Connolly: Did the agency do research on Galway city, which has an equal housing crisis to Dublin, where no local authority house has been built since 2009 and where the HAP is the only game in town, as my colleague said earlier? What research has the agency done on Galway or on the HAP scheme? The HAP scheme is going up to €431 million next year. What research has been done on that because...

Public Accounts Committee: 2017 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Chapter 10 - Funding and Oversight of Approved Housing Bodies
Vote 34 - Housing, Planning and Local Government
2017 Financial Statements - Housing Agency (25 Oct 2018)

Catherine Connolly: I understand that, and I can only ask questions within my time. Galway has a serious housing crisis. I am asking Mr. O'Connor what specific analysis his organisation has done. It is nothing. The agency did not look at Airbnb. No initiative has come to say this policy is difficult here and it will lead to a worsening of the crisis. I do not see that coming out of any single piece of...

Public Accounts Committee: 2017 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Chapter 10 - Funding and Oversight of Approved Housing Bodies
Vote 34 - Housing, Planning and Local Government
2017 Financial Statements - Housing Agency (25 Oct 2018)

Catherine Connolly: Is that for 2017?

Public Accounts Committee: 2017 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Chapter 10 - Funding and Oversight of Approved Housing Bodies
Vote 34 - Housing, Planning and Local Government
2017 Financial Statements - Housing Agency (25 Oct 2018)

Catherine Connolly: I was speaking earlier on the Charleton tribunal. One sentence from its report states "Public relations speak as a substitute for plain speaking is an affront to the duty of [the Garda]". I think the criticism of public relations speak as a substitute for plain speaking could be applied to every body including Deputies. I am looking at the Housing Agency. I am not being personal. It has...

Public Accounts Committee: 2017 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Chapter 10 - Funding and Oversight of Approved Housing Bodies
Vote 34 - Housing, Planning and Local Government
2017 Financial Statements - Housing Agency (25 Oct 2018)

Catherine Connolly: That is good to know. I look at it and what I see is public relations. I see that over €300,000 was spent on research. Did the agency not study or examine the effect of Airbnb on the market? The answer is "no". Did it look at Galway and the Traveller accommodation plan that has never been implemented? Did it look at how that is affecting them?

Public Accounts Committee: 2017 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Chapter 10 - Funding and Oversight of Approved Housing Bodies
Vote 34 - Housing, Planning and Local Government
2017 Financial Statements - Housing Agency (25 Oct 2018)

Catherine Connolly: No, we have all the plans in the world. I will return to the Department. I spent 17 years there and I know it was not implemented. It has never been implemented. The last time I was briefed as a Deputy, which I think was over a year ago but I am losing track, we were told that the manager was not averse to using his emergency powers because the Traveller accommodation plan had not been...

Public Accounts Committee: 2017 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Chapter 10 - Funding and Oversight of Approved Housing Bodies
Vote 34 - Housing, Planning and Local Government
2017 Financial Statements - Housing Agency (25 Oct 2018)

Catherine Connolly: What did the Housing Agency learn from the fact that Galway City Council had not implemented its Traveller accommodation plan? There was consultation and the plan passed, but it was never implemented. Did the agency look at the implications?

Public Accounts Committee: 2017 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Chapter 10 - Funding and Oversight of Approved Housing Bodies
Vote 34 - Housing, Planning and Local Government
2017 Financial Statements - Housing Agency (25 Oct 2018)

Catherine Connolly: Will Mr. Silke confine his remarks to the plan in Galway?

Public Accounts Committee: 2017 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Chapter 10 - Funding and Oversight of Approved Housing Bodies
Vote 34 - Housing, Planning and Local Government
2017 Financial Statements - Housing Agency (25 Oct 2018)

Catherine Connolly: I do not wish to interrupt Mr. Silke, but I am looking at the report and trying to see why we have a housing crisis. It seems to get worse the more initiatives we take. The House Agency was set up as an initiative - that is not a reflection on the staff who work in it - and I see the amount of money it takes to fund it. Did I see a figure for the cost of renting office accommodation?

Public Accounts Committee: 2017 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Chapter 10 - Funding and Oversight of Approved Housing Bodies
Vote 34 - Housing, Planning and Local Government
2017 Financial Statements - Housing Agency (25 Oct 2018)

Catherine Connolly: Good Lord, the Housing Agency must be the only body that owns its office space. Does it actually own it?

Public Accounts Committee: 2017 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Chapter 10 - Funding and Oversight of Approved Housing Bodies
Vote 34 - Housing, Planning and Local Government
2017 Financial Statements - Housing Agency (25 Oct 2018)

Catherine Connolly: Why do we have a huge housing crisis? We are investing a significant amount of money. The housing crisis in Galway is equal to, if not worse than, the crisis in Dublin. Let me outline the facts. People have been on the housing waiting list since 2002. Up until very recently, there were almost 5,000 households on the list, but, mysteriously and magically, that number has been reduced. We...

Public Accounts Committee: 2017 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Chapter 10 - Funding and Oversight of Approved Housing Bodies
Vote 34 - Housing, Planning and Local Government
2017 Financial Statements - Housing Agency (25 Oct 2018)

Catherine Connolly: I hear that, but I bring it back to the area I represent in order that I can understand it. Of course, the Housing Agency has to look at the problem nationally, but it also has to learn from what is happening. Let us use Galway as an example. No social house was built and the only game in town is the HAP scheme. That was a policy decision made in the Department. As my colleague said,...

Public Accounts Committee: 2017 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Chapter 10 - Funding and Oversight of Approved Housing Bodies
Vote 34 - Housing, Planning and Local Government
2017 Financial Statements - Housing Agency (25 Oct 2018)

Catherine Connolly: Will Mr. O'Connor, please, listen to me? I know that the limits are set. I know what the limits are in Galway and that the local authority can use its discretion. Notwithstanding all of that, one simply cannot find a house in Galway to rent. That is why the homeless figures are rising. I know from a person related to me who was looking for accommodation that it costs more than...

Public Accounts Committee: 2017 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Chapter 10 - Funding and Oversight of Approved Housing Bodies
Vote 34 - Housing, Planning and Local Government
2017 Financial Statements - Housing Agency (25 Oct 2018)

Catherine Connolly: Will Mr. McCarthy, please, listen to my question? If the allocation for the HAP scheme is on an upward trajectory and spending next year will rise to €421 million, it is one scheme that is actively promoting the private housing market. Will the officials, please, try to answer my question? If they are not able to do so and say they cannot, that is okay, too. I am trying to...

Public Accounts Committee: 2017 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Chapter 10 - Funding and Oversight of Approved Housing Bodies
Vote 34 - Housing, Planning and Local Government
2017 Financial Statements - Housing Agency (25 Oct 2018)

Catherine Connolly: I hate being parochial, but I will keep referring to Galway where the housing crisis is on the same level, if not worse, than that in Dublin. Last year building work started on 14 social houses. Does Mr. McCarthy know straight off - I am sure the Housing Agency brought in the city manager - the size of the land bank available and what the obstacles are to direct build, in encouraging small...