Results 3,721-3,740 of 9,814 for speaker:Steven Matthews

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Dereliction and Vacancy: Discussion (15 Jun 2023)

Steven Matthews: This committee could be active in holding the local authorities to account regarding the targets over the next couple of years. I will leave a note for the incoming Chair in 2025 to follow up on that.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Dereliction and Vacancy: Discussion (15 Jun 2023)

Steven Matthews: Is that an upfront fund to allow local authorities to go again and again, like a rolling fund they acquire as they deliver the units?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Dereliction and Vacancy: Discussion (15 Jun 2023)

Steven Matthews: I thank Mr. Daly. With regard to changes in the legislation, will the Department clarify whether anything is being proposed or work is being done to identify properties?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Dereliction and Vacancy: Discussion (15 Jun 2023)

Steven Matthews: Targets have also been set for each local authority on CPOs or repair and lease. The committee did a report, either last year or the year before, and it is good to see a lot of the recommendations that we had made being enacted now. One of those was the data gathering exercise. It is quite impressive that 18 local authorities are going out mobile. Score conditioning was recommended in the...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Dereliction and Vacancy: Discussion (15 Jun 2023)

Steven Matthews: No not the survey data, I refer to the six or seven activation measures and the targets set for them. One does not dictate to them that they all must be done under CPO or repair and lease. Will it be flagged where some process has stalled? For example, some processes can go on for a very long time but the end figure is just the end figure. Will The Department monitor progress through each...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Dereliction and Vacancy: Discussion (15 Jun 2023)

Steven Matthews: It would be really helpful for the committee to receive that information in whatever format. The committee brought in officials from 12 or 14 local authorities over the past year to report on progress under Housing For All. That could be an exercise for this committee to engage in, to give them a little bit of time. I know that these initiatives take time to settle. The legislation for...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Dereliction and Vacancy: Discussion (15 Jun 2023)

Steven Matthews: That would be interesting to know. I accept that if something comes in for the four Dublin local authorities it includes the city, but if something comes in from a county we have no idea if it is within a settlement boundary of a town or if it is rural. I would be interested to know how the towns and villages schemes breaks down in that regard.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Dereliction and Vacancy: Discussion (15 Jun 2023)

Steven Matthews: Would Mr. Kehoe say there is a lot more interest being expressed now that it is outside settlement boundaries and into the once-off property territory, as opposed to the original objective of the scheme?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Dereliction and Vacancy: Discussion (15 Jun 2023)

Steven Matthews: I thank Mr. Kehoe.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Dereliction and Vacancy: Discussion (15 Jun 2023)

Steven Matthews: That is fine. We will go to Independent slot. I am happy to bring in the Deputy now.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Dereliction and Vacancy: Discussion (15 Jun 2023)

Steven Matthews: I did a significant amount of research on compulsory sales orders about a year and a half ago. I also engaged the Oireachtas Library and Research Service on the issue. I thought Scotland had run into difficulties in this regard. It stalled there because it is extremely complex. I agree that it is something that could be utilised but I believe we should go for the less complex and quicker...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Dereliction and Vacancy: Discussion (15 Jun 2023)

Steven Matthews: I will take the next slot. It was mentioned that this committee has been discussing vacancy and dereliction for the past six years. The conversation has probably gone on a lot longer than that, but it is safe to say that there has never been such a concerted effort to address dereliction and vacancy as we have seen during the term of this Government, including targets being set. The fact...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Dereliction and Vacancy: Discussion (15 Jun 2023)

Steven Matthews: I thank the Senator. It is important to acknowledge that the Croí Cónaithe scheme was only introduced in July last year. It has been in place for 11 months. These things take time to bed in. Many people came to me before I had all the information. It takes three to six months for people to decide to go for it. I expect it to get better. I recommend the Department adds the...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Dereliction and Vacancy: Discussion (15 Jun 2023)

Steven Matthews: Let us say we will settle with the GeoDirectory- I am conscious that staff are out in the field in 18 local authorities and will probably improve the information - would it be possible to provide a layer of data to say what the vacancy rates are in a particular electoral district as opposed to in the larger blocks we seem to be reporting on at the moment?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Dereliction and Vacancy: Discussion (15 Jun 2023)

Steven Matthews: I get that point. I wonder what work we can do to try to address those anomalies.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Dereliction and Vacancy: Discussion (15 Jun 2023)

Steven Matthews: As time goes on we will get more data and information. Everyone agreed when we were preparing that report, that getting to the lower level information is helpful, not only the numbers but also the condition scoring. I will ask a question about the derelict sites levy. We used to have a vacant site levy which is being changed to a zoned land tax, which is Revenue based. A vacant homes...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Dereliction and Vacancy: Discussion (15 Jun 2023)

Steven Matthews: When the local authority envelope drops through the door with the local authority crest on it, people might be likely not to respond to it. When the harp drops through the door, there is a much greater response. We have generally been moving to a tax, with the vacant homes tax and by going from a vacant homes levy to a zoned land tax. It would be a natural progression for the derelict...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Dereliction and Vacancy: Discussion (15 Jun 2023)

Steven Matthews: If the register were to be compiled based on observations and people reporting derelict sites, the local authority would say "there is the register" and leave it to Revenue to collect the tax. It would relieve them of the burden of having to collect the levy. The levy is obviously not being collected in many cases. The reports suggest that. Revenue has a much better record of collecting....

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Dereliction and Vacancy: Discussion (15 Jun 2023)

Steven Matthews: We might find out who the owners are then. It might drive out the owners.