Results 3,541-3,560 of 5,872 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: I apologise for interrupting Mr. McCarthy. That was going to be my next question. I ask him to hold off on addressing voids for the moment. I am keen to discuss them with him.

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

Thomas Gould: My issue is the decrease in expenditure on housing maintenance for social housing that is currently occupied by tenants. The housing stock is ageing and people are living in houses that have single-glazed aluminium windows and no insulation. There is no retrofitting of those houses going on. Actually, retrofitting is not in the report. I do not believe local authorities are performing to...

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

Thomas Gould: What are the consequences? If NOAC audits the 31 local authorities and some are best in class, some are in the middle and others are at the bottom, what are the implications? From what Mr. McCarthy has told me, a person living in Cork may not be getting the same housing maintenance as a person living in Tipperary or Dublin. I believe all social housing tenants should be treated equally and...

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

Thomas Gould: Great. My next point relates to voids. I was surprised at the figures referred to by Mr. McCarthy. He stated it takes 14 to 15 weeks to turn around a void. To clarify, the performance indicator report with which we are now dealing is the 2020 report. The report for 2021 has not yet been published. Is that correct?

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

Thomas Gould: The figures from which I am operating state that from 2017 to 2019 the periods were 29 weeks, 28 weeks and 28 weeks, respectively. The figure increased by 65% from 2014 to 2020. The figures I have are much higher than those referred to by Mr. McCarthy. My figures come from the indicator report. The most recent figures I got from Cork City Council indicate a period of 64 weeks. When I...

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

Thomas Gould: We discussed voids earlier and I checked the figures. I would like to be associated with the appreciation for the work done by the witnesses in the report they put forward. It is very valuable, especially the indicators which show 31 local authorities getting all of the information together. That provides Deputies, Senators and councillors with the ability to apply pressure on or...

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...