Results 2,381-2,400 of 25,713 for speaker:Darragh O'Brien

Ceisteanna ar Pholasaí nó ar Reachtaíocht - Questions on Policy or Legislation (19 Sep 2024)

Darragh O'Brien: I thank the Deputy for raising this really important issue. I am a massive supporter of the citizens information service. All of us know the work that is done right across the country and the invaluable service it provides. I am fully supportive of a pay increase for these workers. I want to be clear on this. I have not met a Government colleague who is not supportive of that at this...

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí (Atógáil) - Leaders' Questions (Resumed) (19 Sep 2024)

Darragh O'Brien: I am happy to look at those cases if the Deputy gives me the details.

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí (Atógáil) - Leaders' Questions (Resumed) (19 Sep 2024)

Darragh O'Brien: The Deputy has raised a very important point with regard to accountability and value for money. Thankfully, the State, due to the hard work of the 2.75 million people in employment, is running a budget surplus. We continue to do that. We are investing in significant infrastructural projects and will continue to move forward projects such as metro north, as the Deputy mentioned, which is...

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí (Atógáil) - Leaders' Questions (Resumed) (19 Sep 2024)

Darragh O'Brien: There have been many advances in this country. I do not want the Deputy's depiction to stand that everything is wrong and everything is broken; it is not. Let us be straight on that first. If we look at the vast improvement over decades in infrastructure-----

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí (Atógáil) - Leaders' Questions (Resumed) (19 Sep 2024)

Darragh O'Brien: The Deputy can assist in this regard. All Deputies have a responsibility in this. The reason for most of the delays in some of our largest infrastructural projects is planning. It is objections, delays, judicial reviews, protests - all of those things.

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí (Atógáil) - Leaders' Questions (Resumed) (19 Sep 2024)

Darragh O'Brien: The Deputy will have an opportunity to speak eloquently here about his frustration with delays and cost overruns. He will have an opportunity within two or three weeks to either vote for or against the Planning and Development Bill, which will make a massive difference-----

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (19 Sep 2024)

Darragh O'Brien: -----on behalf of our citizens. It is the most significant investment that has ever been made in the history of the State. However, we are dealing with a situation of significant under-delivery over a ten-year period and catching up on the pent-up demand. Homelessness and exiting people from it remain the number one focus of me and the Government.

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí (Atógáil) - Leaders' Questions (Resumed) (19 Sep 2024)

Darragh O'Brien: Cuirim fáilte rompu freisin. I hope they have a successful and fruitful visit. We have discussed and debated in the House and at committee meetings in the past four years the challenges that remain in housing. I have not claimed success, as Deputy Boyd Barrett said at the start; absolutely not. What I have done is to clearly record where progress has been made. Last year, we built...

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí (Atógáil) - Leaders' Questions (Resumed) (19 Sep 2024)

Darragh O'Brien: Okay, perhaps she can wait to ask a question and let me answer Deputy Boyd Barrett. On affordable housing, when this Government came into office no affordable homes were offered at all. The Deputy knows that. Last year, 1,757 housing solutions were delivered on affordable housing. This year the figure will be more than 6,000. I am not claiming success or that we have dealt with every...

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí (Atógáil) - Leaders' Questions (Resumed) (19 Sep 2024)

Darragh O'Brien: That is why we need a planning system that supports the delivery of the homes and infrastructure we need. That is why I expect Deputies on both sides of the House to support the Planning and Development Bill when it comes back to the House for its final Stages, so we can ensure we have an efficient planning system under which someone from Ballina cannot object to a social housing development...

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí (Atógáil) - Leaders' Questions (Resumed) (19 Sep 2024)

Darragh O'Brien: I was the first Minister since 2011 to increase the social housing income limits. We increased them all across the country and they remain under review. We need to increase our own stock of social housing. In the four years of this Government, we have been able to do that and to scale up the capacity to deliver. Certainly, there is much more to do. I only used Shanganagh as an example;...

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (19 Sep 2024)

Darragh O'Brien: It is nothing of the sort, and the Deputy knows that. I do not know whether the issue of pensions is a matter he discussed when he went to London to meet potential investors in this country recently. This is about acting on an independent report that has come forward. In a very phased way from 2026, the standard funding threshold will be increased. While we are doing that, the Government...

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (19 Sep 2024)

Darragh O'Brien: It is not crumbs.

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (19 Sep 2024)

Darragh O'Brien: About 50% of people in this country have made pension provisions themselves. That is it. About 50% do not have any pension provision. That is our absolute focus. That is why we need to keep things such as the ability to claim tax relief at the marginal rate, not like the Sinn Féin proposal that any average worker out there who is earning will pay more in tax.

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (19 Sep 2024)

Darragh O'Brien: I will send Deputy Doherty the documentation from Sinn Féin that proposes to reduce the pension tax relief to the standard rate. That would be a real cost to workers and people.

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (19 Sep 2024)

Darragh O'Brien: I thank Deputy Bacik for her questions and comments. Those in emergency accommodation and homelessness remain the number one challenge for this Government. In a number of counties across the country, we are seeing continued decreases in the numbers accessing emergency accommodation and increasing exits from such accommodation. In quarter 2, 630 households were able to exit emergency...

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (19 Sep 2024)

Darragh O'Brien: We will hit our social housing target this year. We have delivered over 6,000 affordable housing solutions this year. When we came into government, there were no affordable housing solutions. There was no cost-rental housing or secure tenancies for working people. Nearly 2,000 tenancies have been put in place through cost rental that we legislated for and funded. We will see a continued...

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (19 Sep 2024)

Darragh O'Brien: We have to make sure that where people end up in a situation where they do not have a home, they are supported in the best possible accommodation that can be provided for them for as short a time as possible. That is the reason for the Government support this year to the tune of €242 million for homelessness and emergency services and we will add a supplementary to that this year....

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (19 Sep 2024)

Darragh O'Brien: Just to bring a bit of reality to this conversation, the Deputy will know that the previous Minister for Finance appointed Dr. Donal de Buitléir to undertake an independent examination of the standard fund threshold, which was reduced in 2014. As a Government, our main focus in respect of pensions, particularly for middle-income workers, is to ensure that they have pension provisions...

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (19 Sep 2024)

Darragh O'Brien: Sinn Féin has proposed to reduce it to 20%,-----