Results 3,701-3,720 of 7,404 for speaker:Mick Wallace

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

Mick Wallace: I recommend that the committee bring in Jim Keogan from the planning department of Dublin City Council. He has much to offer in this area.

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

Mick Wallace: The issue of private housing has been raised. I do not take the position of the CIF but I believe there are major problems with the supply of private housing in Ireland. Affordability is the primary issue. Two thirds of the people are probably always going to use private housing. It is a huge issue and very problematic. It has not been addressed for years by any Government. There is a...

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

Mick Wallace: I also agree. I do not think that bringing people before the committee and questioning and listening to them, as Deputy Durkan suggested, would do any of us any harm. Such engagement could take place in private session.

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

Mick Wallace: I apologise. Hearing about people's direct experiences can be very educational. We have all read a great deal about refugees. When I went to Calais the weekend before last and listened to people tell their stories, it gave me a different perspective. If we invite a few people to come before the committee who have direct experience of that, and the meeting can be in private session, we will...

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

Mick Wallace: I agree with Deputy Ó Broin. There is no doubt that what Deputy Durkan classified as unregulated third parties seem to have the power to run amok at the moment. The acting Minister for Finance, Deputy Michael Noonan, is probably the best Government individual to address that issue. We have to look at whether we can stop them from running amok and if we have any control over them and...

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

Mick Wallace: I would like to see the Minister for Finance, Deputy Michael Noonan, come in again, as well as Paul Sweeney from TASC, the Think-tank for Action on Social Change. We have a significant challenge in how we are going to fund a really good social housing programme. I do not believe we should be going down the PPP, public private partnership, route in which money costs 15 times more than what...

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

Mick Wallace: That is why I am saying that I want the Minister for Finance, Deputy Noonan, to come before us. Mr. Paul Sweeney has done some good work in this area and it would do us good to listen to him.

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

Mick Wallace: Yes. The land banking is going to come up in a number of sections. In section 3, on the private rental sector, when one strips away the clothes, one will see that the biggest primary problem with the affordability of the private sector is that we have a completely unregulated land-banking sector, which we do not tax. If we are serious, a "use it or lose it" policy will have to be adopted,...

Committee on Housing and Homelessness: County and City Management Association (26 Apr 2016)

Mick Wallace: I welcome the delegation and thank them for coming in. Mr. Cummins says social and private housing clients are competing for the same limited supply. Does he agree that this is directly linked to the fact that we have been using private housing to satisfy the demand for social housing through the rent supplement scheme? Mr. Cummins said we need to make every aspect of housing provision more...

Committee on Housing and Homelessness: County and City Management Association (26 Apr 2016)

Mick Wallace: My final question was on understaffing.

Committee on Housing and Homelessness: County and City Management Association (26 Apr 2016)

Mick Wallace: I remind the witnesses of two of my questions that were not answered; I am not inventing new ones. One was about compulsory purchase and whether local authorities have that power and the other was about the docklands. Foreign investment funds obviously have bought a lot of land there on which they are eager to put high-end offices, as is the National Asset Management Agency, NAMA. Do local...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Schools Building Projects Applications (26 Apr 2016)

Mick Wallace: 373. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the status of a promised new building (details supplied), including if she has announced a preferred tenderer; when construction will begin and if the project will be completed within the timeframe of the five-year school building programme announced in March 2012; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [8042/16]

EU-UK Relations: Statements (21 Apr 2016)

Mick Wallace: Story of my life.

EU-UK Relations: Statements (21 Apr 2016)

Mick Wallace: Obviously Ireland has concerns about whether Britain stays in the EU and they are very much linked to trade. I am not convinced quite so many problems would develop around trade between Ireland and Britain if Britain were to leave the EU. Needs must and there are different ways of doing business. I think the issue would be dealt with in such a way that both countries would continue to do...

Committee on Housing and Homelessness: Election of Chairman (20 Apr 2016)

Mick Wallace: I second Deputy Ó Broin's nomination.

Committee on Housing and Homelessness: Business of Committee (20 Apr 2016)

Mick Wallace: I, too, congratulate the Chairman on his election and ask him not to hold it against me that I did not vote for him. Most of us would agree that matters will get worse before they get better, unless some immediate measures are taken to deal with the current homelessness and housing crisis. We can be certain that the situation will get worse in the short term unless radical measures are...

Committee on Housing and Homelessness: Business of Committee (20 Apr 2016)

Mick Wallace: We do not have much time. I do not know how many so-called professionals the committee is looking to invite before us but most people can spend an hour saying what can be said in ten minutes. We could waste a lot of time talking and listening but doing very little, unless we confine them to very short presentations.

Committee on Housing and Homelessness: Business of Committee (20 Apr 2016)

Mick Wallace: Deputy O'Dowd should be left in here on his own all day.

Committee on Housing and Homelessness: Business of Committee (20 Apr 2016)

Mick Wallace: The Housing Agency is a key player.

Health Services: Statements (20 Apr 2016)

Mick Wallace: Mental health was the health issue raised most with me during the election campaign in Wexford. Problems with mental health are not confined to Wexford but the county did have the highest suicide rate in Ireland in 2015. That is not unrelated to the fact that Wexford has the third highest level of deprivation in the country or that the HSE deals abysmally badly with the problem there. A...