Results 2,301-2,320 of 11,114 for speaker:Damien English

Seanad: Housing: Statements (26 Sep 2019)

Damien English: We might still be here at 5 p.m., I will try-----

Seanad: Housing: Statements (26 Sep 2019)

Damien English: Senator Craughwell raised some issues about private housing. If people want to buy a house and knock it and replace it, that is their business and it is their money. We do not get involved in that. Those people must go through the planning process. That is people's private money and I am not going to go there. We have enough to do to manage public money and provide public housing. The...

Seanad: Housing: Statements (26 Sep 2019)

Damien English: I do not agree with the Senator. It is working.

Seanad: Housing: Statements (26 Sep 2019)

Damien English: The Senator knows it is working. I used to listen to this-----

Seanad: Housing: Statements (26 Sep 2019)

Damien English: I am very slow, I am on the way. I used to listen to the same complaints about jobs. When the Fine Gael and Labour Party Government started delivering jobs, and we had some great success, and Senator Humphreys was a Minister in that Government and would have seen the reduction in the demand for social protection because he was in that Department, yet the mantra was that they were not real...

Seanad: Housing: Statements (26 Sep 2019)

Damien English: I can bring Senator Murnane O'Connor to see 300 different sites to show her where we are building houses.They are real houses, not made up or just drawn onto paper. They are real and it is happening. Yet, people try to say they are not happening, which is a pity. I have no problem saying it is not enough but do not tell me nothing is happening, because that is not true. I have listened to...

Seanad: Housing: Statements (26 Sep 2019)

Damien English: I was not referring to-----

Seanad: Housing: Statements (26 Sep 2019)

Damien English: I was not talking about Fianna Fáil I was talking about Sinn Féin this time - just to be clear - because its Members keep saying we are ideologically opposed to it. That is not true. If it were the case, we would not be building the social housing we are building. I accept there are difficulties with the rental markets - I have not said there are not - and I accept that rents are...

Seanad: Housing: Statements (26 Sep 2019)

Damien English: Let me make the point first-----

Seanad: Housing: Statements (26 Sep 2019)

Damien English: I do not mean the use of HAP for-----

Seanad: Housing: Statements (26 Sep 2019)

Damien English: Will the Senator let me make the point first? The original version of HAP was to allow people to go back to work while still getting rent assistance. That is what I was going to say; that the Senator was involved in that part of it. That was the change we made, which was important.

Seanad: Housing: Statements (26 Sep 2019)

Damien English: I do not mind.

Seanad: Housing: Statements (26 Sep 2019)

Damien English: I had been trying to make the point and I was trying to compliment the Senator.

Seanad: Housing: Statements (26 Sep 2019)

Damien English: I was trying to compliment-----

Seanad: Housing: Statements (26 Sep 2019)

Damien English: It will yes. I will keep my praise in my pocket from now on. I remember debating this issue with Senator Humphreys, and the then Tánaiste, Deputy Burton, that people were prevented from going back to work because they would lose their rent allowance, which was a crazy situation. Again, that was other Governments but it was addressed in a way that people could go back to work and still...

Seanad: Housing: Statements (26 Sep 2019)

Damien English: More than 40,000 families use the HAP scheme. This is far too many and I wish it was a lot fewer. If they did not use that scheme however, those families would not have a home. As I said earlier, it takes a little bit of time to build the housing stock that was not built by other Governments in the past, namely, Fianna Fáil. They did not build the social housing-----

Seanad: Housing: Statements (26 Sep 2019)

Damien English: -----and while we increase the social housing that people really need, we still need to find those families a home. This is why HAP is used to provide somebody with a home today.

Seanad: Housing: Statements (26 Sep 2019)

Damien English: More than 40,000 families, it is probably nearly 50,000 families, are in a house today because of HAP. In most cases it is a success but like any rental agreement, in some cases it is not perfect. In the majority of cases, however, they are a success. Naturally Members will bring the negative stories into the House but it is my job to give a bit of balance to it. There are a lot of...

Seanad: Housing: Statements (26 Sep 2019)

Damien English: Senator Lawlor referred to trying to play catch-up and asked about approved housing bodies, AHBs, of which there are 551. I believe Senator Craughwell also mentioned them. The majority of those housing bodies are not large-scale housing bodies that employ many staff, directors and so on. Most of the AHBs are smaller housing associations that are responsible for one very successful project...

Seanad: Housing: Statements (26 Sep 2019)

Damien English: We do look at that and we deal with it as much as we possibly can. Senator Lawlor also spoke about house quality. There have been improvements to the quality of houses and reductions in heat bills through regulations that were introduced over the past years. The Senator has left the Chamber and perhaps Senators will let him know if they are talking to him that we have signed off on new...