Results 3,301-3,320 of 5,626 for speaker:Thomas Gould

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: National Oversight Audit Commission’s 2021 Annual Report: Discussion (17 May 2022)

Thomas Gould: Unfortunately, from a governance perspective and with the exception of producing the report and highlighting what each local authority is doing, there is no sanction to be brought on a local authority.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: National Oversight Audit Commission’s 2021 Annual Report: Discussion (17 May 2022)

Thomas Gould: Following from that and going to something that Mr. Hayes mentioned, there is the question of the derelict sites levy, which is a major issue for me. The commission carries out scrutiny and oversight of local authorities. The 2020 figures indicate only 7% of the overall levies were applied and 13 local authorities applied no levy. There is €12.5 million outstanding nationally from...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: National Oversight Audit Commission’s 2021 Annual Report: Discussion (17 May 2022)

Thomas Gould: They are 2020 figures from NOAC's report.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: National Oversight Audit Commission’s 2021 Annual Report: Discussion (17 May 2022)

Thomas Gould: Yes. They indicate only 6.95% of the overall levy was applied, with 13 local authorities applying no levy. There is €12.47 million outstanding cumulatively. Cork city collected only €163,000 of a possible €3.4 million.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: National Oversight Audit Commission’s 2021 Annual Report: Discussion (17 May 2022)

Thomas Gould: I should correct myself. I got the data from the Minister.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: National Oversight Audit Commission’s 2021 Annual Report: Discussion (17 May 2022)

Thomas Gould: The question then is why such data is not in the report.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: National Oversight Audit Commission’s 2021 Annual Report: Discussion (17 May 2022)

Thomas Gould: That is the point and I hoped that the commission might do it. NOAC has oversight and scrutiny over a potential for millions of euro that could be collected by local authorities. This should be part of the commission's oversight.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: National Oversight Audit Commission’s 2021 Annual Report: Discussion (17 May 2022)

Thomas Gould: Yes.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: National Oversight Audit Commission’s 2021 Annual Report: Discussion (17 May 2022)

Thomas Gould: Okay.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: National Oversight Audit Commission’s 2021 Annual Report: Discussion (17 May 2022)

Thomas Gould: I thank Mr. McCarthy. With the work done by NOAC, it is something it could tackle. It is getting the information and pulling it from all the different bodies. This week we have heard about applying a vacant site tax. The Minister has made promises about this. Dereliction and vacancy is work for which NOAC would be suitable. It would be able to put comprehensive reports together.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: National Oversight Audit Commission’s 2021 Annual Report: Discussion (17 May 2022)

Thomas Gould: I am just making the point that NOAC could do great work there.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: National Oversight Audit Commission’s 2021 Annual Report: Discussion (17 May 2022)

Thomas Gould: Returning to the point about the role of NOAC and where we might see that into the future, a priority for myself and other members of the committee, if not all of us, is vacancy and dereliction. We need to get a handle on it. We need to get all the data together. That was supposed to happen with the local property tax but from what we can see, that has failed. We also know that the...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: National Oversight Audit Commission’s 2021 Annual Report: Discussion (17 May 2022)

Thomas Gould: We had an expert in here a couple of months ago. Part of his studies involved the collection of data on homelessness so that we have a better understanding of how the Government, local authorities and the Oireachtas can work to solve the issues. It is not in the witnesses' remit to drill down into the data in that way. However, no one is collating information on deaths. There is nobody to...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: National Oversight Audit Commission’s 2021 Annual Report: Discussion (17 May 2022)

Thomas Gould: In the whole State, there is only the Dublin Regional Homeless Executive. We need this information. We may not have time to go into my last point now. Mr. Hayes made a point about the work NOAC did on retrofitting in Sligo. We know there are 172,000 social houses. Some 36,000 have been retrofitted and another 36,000 have been earmarked, but that will leave 100,000 social houses that will...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: National Oversight Audit Commission’s 2021 Annual Report: Discussion (17 May 2022)

Thomas Gould: I am looking for standards across all local authorities.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Local Government Audit Service Report: Discussion (17 May 2022)

Thomas Gould: The work done by the LGAS is very important. Accountability in local authorities is very important. Depending on the local authority, it could be dealing with hundreds of millions of euro. I have a few questions arising from the report. One relates to a purchase of city trees by Cork City Council at a cost of €404,000 to improve the air quality in the city centre. No advice was...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Local Government Audit Service Report: Discussion (17 May 2022)

Thomas Gould: I will just take the seven minutes in case Deputy Ó Broin comes in.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Local Government Audit Service Report: Discussion (17 May 2022)

Thomas Gould: I was a councillor for 12 years. Should representatives of the Local Government Audit Service, LGAS, come in and sit down with the elected representatives to go through the reports for each local authority? Senator Boyhan made the point earlier about the time that passes before we get the report and the local authority audit committee gets a look at it and the time to go through it. There...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Local Government Audit Service Report: Discussion (17 May 2022)

Thomas Gould: Local councillors then must feed back into their local authority's audit committee. There is no facility for them to engage with the LGAS if they feel something is of concern or if they have questions.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Local Government Audit Service Report: Discussion (17 May 2022)

Thomas Gould: It is good to hear that route is available. I will move on to the derelict sites levy, which I raised earlier with representatives of the National Oversight and Audit Commission. The report outlines that derelict properties are subject to a levy at 7% of their market value. In 2019, that figure was 3%. In 2020, Cork City Council only collected €163,000 of the €3.2 million...