Results 181-200 of 733 for long speaker:Damien English

Credit Guarantee (Amendment) Bill 2020: Second Stage (21 Jul 2020)

Damien English: ...has been immense. All our Departments and agencies have been focused on various initiatives that were announced by the last Government. The credit guarantee was one of those announcements, along with legislation we are bringing forward this week. All of those Departments and agencies have also been contributing to the July stimulus plan, which will hopefully be announced in the next...

Employment Rights: Motion [Private Members] (15 Jul 2020)

Damien English: ...is a positive. As set out in the programme for Government, the July stimulus will be followed by the national economic plan in October to be published on the same day as the budget. It will take a longer-term view over the next two to three years as we build on the supports announced already. It will set out our long-term approach to restoring employment and our broader economic...

Seanad: Microenterprise Loan Fund (Amendment) Bill 2020: Second Stage (9 Jul 2020)

Damien English: ...goods again. Given the exceptional circumstances that have resulted from the Covid-19 crisis, it is prudent to increase legislative ceilings to ensure that Microfinance Ireland's lending will continue to be available to assist very small businesses for as long as required. Given the extreme urgency of processing this Bill and the need for microenterprises to access the necessary finance...

Seanad: Microenterprise Loan Fund (Amendment) Bill 2020: Second Stage (9 Jul 2020)

Damien English: ...many as we possibly can and to spread that out. I hear what everybody is saying and the Government will try to do that. At the moment, there is a six-month break and we will, of course, look to see if we can make that longer. Some of the suggestions yesterday and today were to have a longer extension during which one does not have to repay any money. Again, we will look at that to see...

Saincheisteanna Tráthúla - Topical Issue Debate: Covid-19 Pandemic Supports (8 Jul 2020)

Damien English: ...identifying measures required to enable Irish tourism to recover from the devastating effects of Covid-19. Naturally, the work of the task force will feed into the stimulus plan in July as well as the long-term recovery plan in line with the budget in October. We welcome any comments or suggestions in that regard. When he addressed the House yesterday on the Microenterprise Loan Fund...

Microenterprise Loan Fund (Amendment) Bill 2020: Committee and Remaining Stages (8 Jul 2020)

Damien English: ...the past two days. I am conscious that the logistics were a little awkward between the two Houses. I recognise the efforts of Members to make their contributions and we value all of them. It has been a long debate over the past two days but I hope we all agree that it has been useful and will lead to necessary additional supports being put in place as a matter of urgency for...

Microenterprise Loan Fund (Amendment) Bill 2020: Committee and Remaining Stages (8 Jul 2020)

Damien English: ...and today. I would love to sit down with Deputy McGuinness to hear his ideas too. We will take all of them in and do what we can in this July stimulus. We will return around the time of the budget with the long-term economic recovery plan. We will of course listen to all the sectors and representative bodies of businesses because they have many good ideas. It is our job as a...

Microenterprise Loan Fund (Amendment) Bill 2020: Second Stage (Resumed) (8 Jul 2020)

Damien English: ...that we can possibly do. Not all of these ideas may be workable. Many ideas were put forward here today, some are workable, some are not and some may take more funding than we have available. Some may also take longer to put in motion but we will take all ideas and we are naturally willing to work with all of those over the years ahead. My officials and others have taken note of all...

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Social and Affordable Housing (16 Jun 2020)

Damien English: ...to provide greater choice and flexibility in the overall housing mix. The Guidelines define ‘Build-To-Rent’ as “Purpose-built residential accommodation and associated amenities built specifically for long-term rental that is managed and serviced in an institutional manner by an institutional landlord.”  The Guidelines as drafted, envisage BTR as a...

Climate Action and Low Carbon Development: Statements (Resumed) (10 Jun 2020)

Damien English: ...and pushing the agenda to go far with it. We will be in a place to make changes to embodied carbon and construction material regulations in line with our European colleagues. While I do not know how long that will take, I believe that the working group is quite busy with the matter and meets regularly, so we should see a harmonised procedure to move on in this space over the next year or...

Climate Action and Low Carbon Development: Statements (Resumed) (10 Jun 2020)

Damien English: ...Bruton, discussed actions and implementing actions. It is important that we put those plans in place but also that we are prepared to change and add to them and implement new actions in them as we go along. That is number one. Number two, we must be prepared to scrutinise our plans. This is part of what we are doing today. We come here to have our plan scrutinised and to explain to...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Tenant Purchase Scheme (11 Dec 2019)

Damien English: ...that people wanted a way of dealing with that €15,000 income barrier. I will clarify why it is there. It is not a madcap idea. There is a logic to it. The tenant purchase scheme has quite a long history of cases where people could not afford to maintain houses after purchasing them. In order to ensure the sustainability of the scheme, it is essential that an applicant's income...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Tenant Purchase Scheme (11 Dec 2019)

Damien English: ...determining reckonable income. The list of income disregards includes child benefit, carer’s allowance, and the family working payment, formerly the family income supplement, as these are deemed not to be long-term in nature. The income sources have to be long-term in nature. We have had this conversation and we are trying to find ways to accommodate cases such as the one Deputy...

Rent Freeze (Fair Rent) Bill 2019: Second Stage [Private Members] (10 Dec 2019)

Damien English: ...story. I doubt if that is the case. Over 10,000 houses have been brought back into the system over the last couple of years and rightly so, as they should not have been left empty for so long. Thankfully, that is one area that we can agree in which much progress has been made. That does not mean it is perfect but there should be very few long-term voids left in the system now. Every...

Housing Solutions: Statements (5 Dec 2019)

Damien English: ...having a sustainable construction sector so that people who go to college, who take on apprenticeships and develop their skills in the construction sector know they will have a safe job for a long time, not boom and bust, but that there will be a sustainable construction sector that will reward their efforts in training and education. Their teams will be rebuilt and others who go into the...

Housing Solutions: Statements (5 Dec 2019)

Damien English: ...area. We see that in Dunshaughlin, Trim and Navan and the Minister for Education and Skills has said he will meet all the principals to deal with some short-term solutions and to put in place some long-term solutions as well. We will be proactive and will find everybody a school place but we should not have to do that. It should be planned right. That is what is happening now with...

Housing Solutions: Statements (5 Dec 2019)

Damien English: ...track record of building houses. That was said on Tuesday night as well. As for the reason we lack social housing, in 2006 and 2007 when this country over 12 months built 90,000 houses, which were needed in the long run, but how many were social housing?

Housing Solutions: Statements (5 Dec 2019)

Damien English: We would like to have more long-term solutions but while we are building the new houses - we are now at the stage of over 10,000 a year - people need houses today. They cannot wait for the social housing delivery next year. That is why we use the HAP scheme. If Deputies do not like it, they might show me a better scheme in the short term.

Housing Solutions: Statements (5 Dec 2019)

Damien English: ...local authorities in providing housing solutions and services. They do a good job and I accept that they also have a role as advocates. A lot of them are working with us and I compliment their work alongside our local authorities and housing bodies. There was an impression given in some of the speeches here on Tuesday that local authorities are not responsible for housing and that we...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Report of the Expert Group on Traveller Accommodation: Discussion (5 Dec 2019)

Damien English: ...Hurley, Ms Ann Gill and Ms Rosemarie Tobin from my Department. With the permission of the Chair, and if it is okay with everybody, my officials would be happy to engage in questions and answers along with myself. I thank the Chair and members for the opportunity to appear again before the committee to give an update on the Traveller accommodation expert review report and the progress...