Results 2,341-2,360 of 8,015 for speaker:Jonathan O'Brien

Public Accounts Committee: Vote 34: Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government (8 Mar 2018)

Jonathan O'Brien: We are doubling it again. Is that correct?

Public Accounts Committee: Vote 34: Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government (8 Mar 2018)

Jonathan O'Brien: So we have gone from €57 million in 2016 to approximately €245 million in 2018.

Public Accounts Committee: Vote 34: Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government (8 Mar 2018)

Jonathan O'Brien: In that period of time have we seen any significant increase in the number of inspections?

Public Accounts Committee: Vote 34: Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government (8 Mar 2018)

Jonathan O'Brien: Does Mr. McCarthy know of any HAP properties that have been withdrawn from the scheme because they have failed an inspection? If so, does he have a number for such properties?

Public Accounts Committee: Vote 34: Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government (8 Mar 2018)

Jonathan O'Brien: It would be appropriate to try to find out how many of those 687 exits from the scheme were because the properties failed inspections.

Public Accounts Committee: Vote 34: Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government (8 Mar 2018)

Jonathan O'Brien: One aspect of this is dealing with the fact that we have landlords who may fail inspections. Inevitably, part of that 687 figure will include people who will just leave a HAP property because it is substandard. In my experience people have come into my constituency office - and I am sure to the offices of other Deputies - and reported that they are living in a HAP property which is...

Public Accounts Committee: Vote 34: Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government (8 Mar 2018)

Jonathan O'Brien: How many of those inspections are being carried out before properties become RAS properties?

Public Accounts Committee: Vote 34: Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government (8 Mar 2018)

Jonathan O'Brien: There is a reason for that which I will come to in a moment. I am just wondering how many inspections of RAS properties are carried out?

Public Accounts Committee: Vote 34: Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government (8 Mar 2018)

Jonathan O'Brien: Does Mr. McCarthy know how the local authorities satisfy themselves of that? Is it by carrying out inspections?

Public Accounts Committee: Vote 34: Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government (8 Mar 2018)

Jonathan O'Brien: Is Mr. McCarthy aware of landlords providing letters of comfort to say that their property is up to standard?

Public Accounts Committee: Vote 34: Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government (8 Mar 2018)

Jonathan O'Brien: If we are saying that a RAS property is up to standard on day 1, why do we have people coming into our constituency offices who have been in RAS properties for less than six, 12 or 18 months with complaints that the property is not up to standard? Issues include no heating and in some cases, no hot water. In some cases there are windows which cannot be opened. Tenants are actually exiting...

Public Accounts Committee: Vote 34: Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government (8 Mar 2018)

Jonathan O'Brien: I will finish on the issue of housing. I will reiterate that I am extremely uncomfortable with spending €300 million on HAP this year when we have no idea what standard of accommodation we are providing to people. It is bizarre. It is something the Department needs to get a grip on very fast. It is not acceptable that that amount of money is being spent on private landlords who are...

Public Accounts Committee: Vote 34: Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government (8 Mar 2018)

Jonathan O'Brien: Housing PPPs.

Public Accounts Committee: Vote 34: Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government (8 Mar 2018)

Jonathan O'Brien: And the number of properties.

Public Accounts Committee: Vote 34: Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government (8 Mar 2018)

Jonathan O'Brien: The majority of PPPs are not in housing. They are primarily in education and roads, although maybe not so much in roads nowadays. There are still a number of housing PPPs, perhaps on the regeneration side and house building. One of the issues I have with PPPs is that we are unable to get any cost-benefit analysis of PPPs so we do not know if we are getting value for money. It is an issue...

Public Accounts Committee: Vote 34: Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government (8 Mar 2018)

Jonathan O'Brien: So I have to come to another meeting.

Public Accounts Committee: Vote 34: Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government (8 Mar 2018)

Jonathan O'Brien: So I have to come to another meeting.

Public Accounts Committee: Vote 34: Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government (8 Mar 2018)

Jonathan O'Brien: Will Mr. McCarthy comment briefly on how much the Department spent on PPPs for housing this year or last year, if he has the figures?

Public Accounts Committee: Vote 34: Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government (8 Mar 2018)

Jonathan O'Brien: As Accounting Officer for the Department, does Mr. McCarthy believe we should be getting a cost-benefit analysis of them? Would he like to get them?

Public Accounts Committee: Vote 34: Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government (8 Mar 2018)

Jonathan O'Brien: I appreciate it will be dealt with at the next meeting but the difficulty I have is even when one looks at the risk cushion, I could not get information on how it is calculated. That is a worry. We are talking about risk cushions but I could not find out how they are calculated. I am quite willing to leave it until the next meeting but I want to flag it. I was not aware it was coming up...