Results 2,281-2,300 of 3,444 for speaker:Shane Cassells
- Public Accounts Committee: Vote 34: Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government (8 Mar 2018)
Shane Cassells: The Department obviously holds regular meetings of city and county managers regarding their upping their game and coming forward with schemes seeking approval from the Department. I see these meetings on the television. What is the average size of the schemes from each county coming forward for delivery?
- Public Accounts Committee: Vote 34: Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government (8 Mar 2018)
Shane Cassells: Again, I am not talking about approved housing bodies; I am specifically talking about county councils.
- Public Accounts Committee: Vote 34: Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government (8 Mar 2018)
Shane Cassells: That is just as important.
- Public Accounts Committee: Vote 34: Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government (8 Mar 2018)
Shane Cassells: Regarding the long-term strategy, the Department is dealing with both the county councils and the approved housing bodies that do such fantastic work. The Department is dealing with the matter through acquisitions. I am harping on this issue because building has unquestionably flagged over the last decade or so. I saw very little building during my time on the local authority. We now have...
- Public Accounts Committee: Vote 34: Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government (8 Mar 2018)
Shane Cassells: In meeting those targets the Department sets a headline figure, which is fine. Is the Department trying to get them to ensure a very good equitable spread across all areas in meeting those targets, or does it not care one way or the other as long as they deliver an overall figure? In the Department's report it is just an overall figure. I had to ask for the breakdown. Is there an aversion...
- Public Accounts Committee: Vote 34: Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government (8 Mar 2018)
Shane Cassells: I do not want to be rude at all. I mean county council estates, the county council estates that I knew. I grew up in the middle of the town of Navan. All the estates around me in the middle of the town were county council estates. They were finely built estates from the 1950s and 1960s where people reared their families. The issues pertaining today that people see, such as social...
- Public Accounts Committee: Vote 34: Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government (8 Mar 2018)
Shane Cassells: Does this include the Housing Agency?
- Public Accounts Committee: Vote 34: Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government (8 Mar 2018)
Shane Cassells: Mr. McCarthy has made the point about areas that have required major regeneration. I put it to Mr. McCarthy - and during my time on the council I continually made this point - that if the ancillary facilities were built at the get go when creating the communities in which we live, we would not experience half of the social problems that come down the line later on. Local government has a...
- Public Accounts Committee: Vote 34: Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government (8 Mar 2018)
Shane Cassells: Are those 700 sites State-owned parcels of land?
- Public Accounts Committee: Vote 34: Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government (8 Mar 2018)
Shane Cassells: I know we do not have landbanks. We have the one, to which I referred, where the 42 units are being built. There are 85,000 people in the county on the waiting list, and a huge number of these, nearly 5,000 people, are in my home town. How is the Department assisting councils in the acquisition of land?
- Public Accounts Committee: Vote 34: Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government (8 Mar 2018)
Shane Cassells: Okay. That is something I am aware of in the context of my county. I do not wish to delay the witness here but I would like to re-engage with Mr. McCarthy on the matter. With regard to the cost of the refurbishment, there is a breakdown of 5,714 homes in 2016, and 2,300 of the homes are refurbishments, which is a very significant number. These are homes that were already in our existing...
- Public Accounts Committee: Vote 34: Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government (8 Mar 2018)
Shane Cassells: What was the total spend?
- Public Accounts Committee: Vote 34: Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government (8 Mar 2018)
Shane Cassells: €34.79 million for those 2,300 refurbishments?
- Public Accounts Committee: Vote 34: Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government (8 Mar 2018)
Shane Cassells: It is massive money-----
- Public Accounts Committee: Vote 34: Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government (8 Mar 2018)
Shane Cassells: ----- on housing stock that we already own and are refurbishing. This is not an indictment. This is frustrating for Mr. McCarthy as it is for every public representative. Deputy Jonathan O'Brien spoke to the Comptroller and Auditor General about signing over the HAP figures. This is a serious amount of money that we are spending - €35 million - on refurbishments. I am sure Mr....
- Public Accounts Committee: Vote 34: Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government (8 Mar 2018)
Shane Cassells: As it is 5.52 p.m., I will try to be helpful. What is the up-to-date position on the office of the planning regulator?
- Public Accounts Committee: Vote 34: Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government (8 Mar 2018)
Shane Cassells: Where is it at the moment?
- Public Accounts Committee: Vote 34: Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government (8 Mar 2018)
Shane Cassells: Will the national planning framework, NPF, also come under this?
- Public Accounts Committee: Vote 34: Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government (8 Mar 2018)
Shane Cassells: Is this legislation responsible for tomorrow's publication of the draft Meath development plan being postponed?
- Public Accounts Committee: Vote 34: Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government (8 Mar 2018)
Shane Cassells: Tomorrow.