Results 3,681-3,700 of 7,404 for speaker:Mick Wallace

Committee on Housing and Homelessness: Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government (28 Apr 2016)

Mick Wallace: Huge projects take a long time, but it means that small projects do not. This country is full of small sites. Dublin city has loads of them. Would the Minister not admit that there is a major concentration by local authorities on the big bang effect of big sites? Why are the small sites not happening and why do we not get the small builders back in the game? There are small builders all...

Committee on Housing and Homelessness: Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government (28 Apr 2016)

Mick Wallace: My final question to the Minister is if he thinks it would be possible for the State to start funding these small projects and to help the builders build housing, be it 50% social, 50% affordable or even private? They need help.

Committee on Housing and Homelessness: Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government (28 Apr 2016)

Mick Wallace: There are a few things that could be ruled out.

Committee on Housing and Homelessness: Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government (28 Apr 2016)

Mick Wallace: I am prepared to build them.

Committee on Housing and Homelessness: Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government (28 Apr 2016)

Mick Wallace: Is the Minister saying there is no issue regarding money and that it is available to local authorities to allow them to build anything they want?

Committee on Housing and Homelessness: Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government (28 Apr 2016)

Mick Wallace: They tell me they are waiting on money.

Committee on Housing and Homelessness: Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government (28 Apr 2016)

Mick Wallace: I am only telling the Minister what they are telling me.

Committee on Housing and Homelessness: Housing Agency (28 Apr 2016)

Mick Wallace: The witness would be disappointed if I did not ask him something. What does Mr. Skehan think should be done to address the fact that private housing is too expensive in Ireland?

Committee on Housing and Homelessness: Housing Agency (28 Apr 2016)

Mick Wallace: On the issue of scale, I realise it costs a great deal more to build ten houses per unit than to build 100, but we must also take on board the fact that the guy who builds 100 wants a higher profit per unit than the guy who is building ten. Does Mr. Skehan agree?

Committee on Housing and Homelessness: Housing Agency (28 Apr 2016)

Mick Wallace: Mr. Skehan is comparing it to other businesses such as Marks & Spencer and how that whole industry which it is involved in works. However, my experience has been that we have a particular problem in Ireland with the profit margin sought by the larger developer. We obviously have a particular problem with the profit sought by the land banker. Mr. Skehan may have heard me say this...

Committee on Housing and Homelessness: Housing Agency (28 Apr 2016)

Mick Wallace: I would argue that most of the land bank and land - I would say over 90% of it - was purchased many years before that and the sites being bought in 2003 and 2004 were actually being turned over. They were not being bought to be banked at that time. They were being bought to be developed. I still think the land banking area is a huge potential for the State to move in on, but we need the...

Committee on Housing and Homelessness: Irish Council for Social Housing (28 Apr 2016)

Mick Wallace: Most of my questions have been asked by others but I want to follow up on one point. Would I be right in saying that there has been a proliferation of approved housing bodies since the crash in 2008? It might be sad for the witnesses that this proliferation has coincided with what is probably the worst handling of housing supply in the history of the State. Listening to the witnesses'...

Committee on Housing and Homelessness: Irish Council for Social Housing (28 Apr 2016)

Mick Wallace: I am only asking.

Irish Water: Statements (27 Apr 2016)

Mick Wallace: The Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Deputy Simon Coveney, told us that we needed Irish Water because of the need to stop leaks and the waste of water. Why were the leaks not tackled immediately after Irish Water was set up? Some 40% of water in Dublin is still leaking into the ground. The Minister, Deputy Simon Coveney, said this was about conservation. The Government paid...

Ireland's Stability Programme Update April 2016: Statements (27 Apr 2016)

Mick Wallace: Under the pact, EU Governments are supposed to bring their deficits to below 3% of GDP and debts are not supposed to be higher than 60% of GDP. However, the rules seem to allow some budget items to be stripped out, including the cost of extraordinary events. It looks like Italy, Lithuania, Austria, Spain and France are going to break the rules around the 3% in 2016 and yet Ireland insists...

Committee on Housing and Homelessness: Interim Report of Committee (26 Apr 2016)

Mick Wallace: I have a couple of points to make. I would say that the problems facing various local authorities are very different. In Wexford, for example, where there is a waiting list of 3,800 on the social housing list, they do not have land; whereas in places like Dublin they have land but they just have not got around to building on it. For example, if somebody is from a county like Wexford - it...

Committee on Housing and Homelessness: Interim Report of Committee (26 Apr 2016)

Mick Wallace: I accept that.

Committee on Housing and Homelessness: Interim Report of Committee (26 Apr 2016)

Mick Wallace: I am not saying we can get everybody when we want them. The element of finance is relevant to where and how we will get the money. It is crucial to many of the issues we will discuss in here. It should come earlier rather than later. That is all.

Committee on Housing and Homelessness: Interim Report of Committee (26 Apr 2016)

Mick Wallace: Given that the past five years have been a disaster in how the supply of housing for all sectors has been dealt with, I am inclined to agree with Deputy Coppinger that some fresh thinking is not going to kill us. I would not suggest that anyone should come in to this committee and talk for an hour, but if people with some fresh thinking are allowed in to the committee and are confined to 15...

Committee on Housing and Homelessness: Interim Report of Committee (26 Apr 2016)

Mick Wallace: I agree with bringing in Bob Jordan of Threshold. Another person who needs to be brought in is the acting Minister for Finance, Deputy Michael Noonan. Without a shadow of a doubt many of the US investment funds have had a major impact on the private rental sector. The favourable tax arrangements put in place for them in the lifetime of the previous Government have had a major impact in...