Results 261-280 of 2,761 for speaker:Pat Buckley

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Waterways Ireland: Discussion. (9 Jul 2024)

Pat Buckley: I thank the Cathaoirleach very much, and the committee also, for having me. I want to further thank the witnesses from Waterways Ireland for coming in today. We are basically here about houseboat fees where we hear about money in, repeatedly, but do not hear a great deal about services. I want to go back so that the committee understands where I am coming from when I am talking about...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Waterways Ireland: Discussion. (9 Jul 2024)

Pat Buckley: I apologise for cutting across Mr. Rowe. I am thinking of the people living in these boats. There are other people paying mooring fees to people on these unauthorised developments and they probably do not even know they might not be covered by insurance and so forth. There are major implications in this regard as to who will get sued. I remember speaking to Mr. Rowe the last time he was...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Waterways Ireland: Discussion. (9 Jul 2024)

Pat Buckley: Are there confidentiality clauses being signed on this?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Waterways Ireland: Discussion. (9 Jul 2024)

Pat Buckley: Is there a timeframe to resolve of all these cases and to find out how much money is being generated and how much revenue is not being paid in tax?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Waterways Ireland: Discussion. (9 Jul 2024)

Pat Buckley: It is indescribable that there are more than 700 developments with no planning permission. We are talking five years to resolve that. A good friend of mine put up a shed for a motorbike about which someone complained because he had no planning permission for the base of it. He had to take the shed down. It did not even take two weeks. I cannot understand why it is going to take so long...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Waterways Ireland: Discussion. (9 Jul 2024)

Pat Buckley: We had that conversation with the mobile home. If it is blocked and I go back up there and throw a caravan up on it and I leave it there for seven years, am I free to camp out for the rest of my life?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Waterways Ireland: Discussion. (9 Jul 2024)

Pat Buckley: I thank the Cathaoirleach.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Waterways Ireland: Discussion. (9 Jul 2024)

Pat Buckley: Deputy Flaherty referred on the 12th Lock in Castleknock. The response from the Ombudsman was that it is not a serviced houseboat mooring location and therefore is not a priority location for the provision of a water tap. It goes on to say that the Office of the Ombudsman cannot ask Waterways Ireland to act outside its remit or in contradiction to planning permission or Government by-laws....

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Waterways Ireland: Discussion. (9 Jul 2024)

Pat Buckley: It is a scale because it is like the property tax in central Dublin compared with, for example, somewhere below in Leitrim, where the property tax is much different. Does Mr. Rowe understand my point here?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Waterways Ireland: Discussion. (9 Jul 2024)

Pat Buckley: Price-wise.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Waterways Ireland: Discussion. (9 Jul 2024)

Pat Buckley: It looks like Waterways Ireland is setting the fee based on the area in which the boats are moored, namely, Dublin city centre, and it is over €4,000.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Waterways Ireland: Discussion. (9 Jul 2024)

Pat Buckley: It is like tying it to-----

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Waterways Ireland: Discussion. (9 Jul 2024)

Pat Buckley: -----the property tax in a way. It does not state that the fee is for maintenance, management or regulation. It is for-----

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Waterways Ireland: Discussion. (9 Jul 2024)

Pat Buckley: -----expensive development works. Is it double taxation? Waterways Ireland receives public moneys from both sides of the country and it receives moneys from permits. Mr. Rowe said a while ago that all the money from the permits would be reinvested. There are between 6,000 and 9,000 boats on the waterways and there should be revenue from those. Waterways Ireland only has 32 houseboat...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Waterways Ireland: Discussion. (9 Jul 2024)

Pat Buckley: That is much appreciated. I mean that.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Waterways Ireland: Discussion. (9 Jul 2024)

Pat Buckley: I counted nearly 60 boats in Portaneena.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Waterways Ireland: Discussion. (9 Jul 2024)

Pat Buckley: Where is this revenue going? If this is an unauthorised development, where is the revenue going? At the same time, we are talking about by-laws and increasing riverboat and houseboat fees. I keep going back to this. It is not personal but I just cannot get my head around how, in this day and age, you cannot get a tap in Castleknock for an unserviced site without planning permission, yet...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Waterways Ireland: Discussion. (9 Jul 2024)

Pat Buckley: What about where there have been new encroachments? I have been told about them.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Waterways Ireland: Discussion. (9 Jul 2024)

Pat Buckley: I was thinking of myself. It seems to be very easy to put something there.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Waterways Ireland: Discussion. (9 Jul 2024)

Pat Buckley: That is good news. I thank Mr. Rowe. I thank the Chair for his indulgence.