Results 2,981-3,000 of 7,961 for speaker:Imelda Munster

An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business (22 Feb 2022)

Imelda Munster: The dental treatment purchase scheme is on the verge of collapse throughout the State. The scheme has been haemorrhaging dentists for the past two years. We have medical card holders with cancer, kidney transplant patients and people with diabetes who cannot access a dentist. This has gone on for a year now. The Government needs to take responsibility. People are suffering and it is...

Written Answers — Department of Health: Emergency Services (22 Feb 2022)

Imelda Munster: 768. To ask the Minister for Health the position regarding the provision of a new fit for purpose ambulance station in Drogheda, County Louth; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [9428/22]

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (17 Feb 2022)

Imelda Munster: I was querying whether we had got a further update or whether there were any developments on it in general.

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (17 Feb 2022)

Imelda Munster: I do not think the Department's response, in fairness, brings any additional clarity. In fact, it raises even more questions. There are many questions to be asked but with the committee's permission, I ask that members submit questions we could send on to the Department for answers.

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (17 Feb 2022)

Imelda Munster: I thank the Chairman. This also has to do with value for money. Imagine a spend of over €72,000 per day on transport for children in south Dublin. I suggest we write to the HSE and ask why early intervention services are not being provided in south Dublin and other areas. Surely to goodness with that amount of money being spent on transport every day, it would be more...

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (17 Feb 2022)

Imelda Munster: I wanted to flag a couple of aspects of the correspondence. The first was the inability of the RTÉ representatives to provide us with the information on the percentage of their income that is being spent on their top earners, despite the fact that they had given an undertaking to us to do precisely that. This illustrates RTÉ’s typical approach to this committee over the...

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (17 Feb 2022)

Imelda Munster: That is why I ask those particular questions. Surely they can tell us the amount earned by their top ten earners from 2019 to date and the number of people who are earning in excess of €150,000, from 2019 to date.

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (17 Feb 2022)

Imelda Munster: And the questions about the RTÉ Player. I thank the Chair.

Public Accounts Committee: 2020 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 34 - Housing, Local Government and Heritage (17 Feb 2022)

Imelda Munster: However, Mr. Doyle could not categorically rule out reaching €1 billion in rent subsidies.

Public Accounts Committee: 2020 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 34 - Housing, Local Government and Heritage (17 Feb 2022)

Imelda Munster: The overall total for last year comes to €893 million, which is not too far off €1 billion. Mr. Doyle would surely accept that there has been a shift away from building social homes and towards providing rental subsidies to private landlords. That is the idea of HAP and all of that. There is the possibility that a figure of €1 billion in rent subsidies could be reached.

Public Accounts Committee: 2020 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 34 - Housing, Local Government and Heritage (17 Feb 2022)

Imelda Munster: They are State subsidies spent on private rental properties. That was what was paid out in 2021.

Public Accounts Committee: 2020 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 34 - Housing, Local Government and Heritage (17 Feb 2022)

Imelda Munster: I am sorry but our time is limited. We are at €893 million now.

Public Accounts Committee: 2020 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 34 - Housing, Local Government and Heritage (17 Feb 2022)

Imelda Munster: We are not too far off the figure of €1 billion. It is now the policy to put people into private rented accommodation. I was on Louth County Council back in 2013 and 2014 when that council was chosen to be one of the local authorities to implement the scheme on a pilot basis. Even at that time, it was obvious that the policy was to shove people into private rented accommodation and...

Public Accounts Committee: 2020 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 34 - Housing, Local Government and Heritage (17 Feb 2022)

Imelda Munster: How many people are in receipt of HAP? Can Mr. Doyle tell me?

Public Accounts Committee: 2020 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 34 - Housing, Local Government and Heritage (17 Feb 2022)

Imelda Munster: What is the total number in receipt of rent subsidies?

Public Accounts Committee: 2020 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 34 - Housing, Local Government and Heritage (17 Feb 2022)

Imelda Munster: Would we be looking at a figure of 100,000 households now reliant on a State subsidy for rent?

Public Accounts Committee: 2020 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 34 - Housing, Local Government and Heritage (17 Feb 2022)

Imelda Munster: Is that figure of 100,000 households in receipt of rent subsidies correct?

Public Accounts Committee: 2020 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 34 - Housing, Local Government and Heritage (17 Feb 2022)

Imelda Munster: So, it is not a stone's throw from 100,000. The reality is that the policy has been to force people into private rented accommodation rather than to build social homes. On the matter of top-ups-----

Public Accounts Committee: 2020 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 34 - Housing, Local Government and Heritage (17 Feb 2022)

Imelda Munster: -----why did the Department not review the area of top-ups when the world and its brother could see that rent was increasing by a substantial amount year-on-year?

Public Accounts Committee: 2020 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 34 - Housing, Local Government and Heritage (17 Feb 2022)

Imelda Munster: Given that the Department is looking at reviewing the rent limits and top-up payments for the first time since 2015, knowing the hardship it has put people receiving HAP through, will Ms Stapleton tell me how many tenants are currently paying top-up payments and how much they are paying in such top-ups?