Results 3,861-3,880 of 11,114 for speaker:Damien English

Topical Issue Debate: Emergency Departments (26 Oct 2017)

Damien English: I will do so and I will also ask him to contact the Deputy to bring him up to speed on the matter. I make clear, however, that it is a draft plan on the Minister's desk.

Topical Issue Debate: Emergency Departments (26 Oct 2017)

Damien English: It will be considered on the basis that it is a draft plan and a decision will be made after such consideration has been given. I emphasise the clear statement made by the Minister that patient and public requirements are paramount and have underpinned the Department's consideration of the draft plan. The Department and Minister will do what is right for patients. The Minister has been...

Topical Issue Debate: Vaccination Programme (26 Oct 2017)

Damien English: On behalf of the Minister for Health, Deputy Simon Harris, I thank Deputies Burton and Kelleher for giving me the opportunity to update the House on this issue. The Minister sends his apologies for not being able to be here. As Deputies are aware influenza can be a serious illness for people in at-risk groups and can lead to hospitalisation and death. At-risk people include those aged...

Topical Issue Debate: Vaccination Programme (26 Oct 2017)

Damien English: I will ask the Minister for Health to contact Deputy Burton about the superbug because I do not have the data on the threats associated with it. Deputy Burton is correct about the communications plan. A stronger campaign is required. The campaign was launched on 2 October, with an initial focus on health care workers. The radio adverts, which will run for three weeks, commenced on 9...

Other Questions: Urban Renewal Schemes (26 Oct 2017)

Damien English: The funding allocated to urban regeneration projects follows the commitment in the programme for Government. My working group has had numerous meetings over the past year and before on the changes we need to make to get this money spent. The scheme is not finalised because the money was only allocated in the budget. We had not secured it until the weeks before the Budget Statement. It is...

Other Questions: Urban Renewal Schemes (26 Oct 2017)

Damien English: The Deputy and many others complimented the scheme when we first rolled it out as one which could work. We recognise that we can make changes and we are going to do so. The Deputy keeps telling us to stop making announcements so we cannot tell him tonight about the changes to the scheme which will improve it. It has great potential which the Deputy and I can both see. He often refers to...

Other Questions: Urban Renewal Schemes (26 Oct 2017)

Damien English: The economic downturn had a significant negative impact on our urban centres. In recognition of this, A Programme for a Partnership Government set out an ambitious priority for urban renewal, with a view to breathing life back into our urban centres and helping to make them more attractive places in which to live and work. We recognise that some of these centres...

Other Questions: Regeneration Projects Funding (26 Oct 2017)

Damien English: The area in question is one of three development sites that Dublin City Council intends to bring to the market and which offer the combined potential to provide over 1,600 homes and the opportunity to create three new, high-quality urban quarters. Accordingly, it is not intended to fund this project solely through the Exchequer. However, taxpayer funding will...

Other Questions: Regeneration Projects Funding (26 Oct 2017)

Damien English: It is an area of high social housing. I have discussed this in many arenas outside this House and know many members of the community favour the approach of a mixed development. I think Sinn Féin would rather it was all paid for by the State, with some houses then sold on as private houses, and that it is not against a private housing mix, although the Deputy can correct me on that....

Other Questions: Regeneration Projects Funding (26 Oct 2017)

Damien English: This is a process we are engaged in with Dublin City Council and we can engage further with it around the percentages. I have said before that I think it is a key site for workers, given it is so close to the hospitals.

Other Questions: Regeneration Projects Funding (26 Oct 2017)

Damien English: They can be afforded. This is a State-owned site. It is a key site and, if it is managed properly, it can deliver all the Deputy wants it to deliver. We have to try to make the best use of taxpayers' money. There is an opportunity to bring this forward, with a proper mixed tenure, which is part of a rejuvenation and regeneration of the area. As I said, it was signalled in the development...

Other Questions: Housing Provision (26 Oct 2017)

Damien English: No Member thinks the figures for recent years are anything to cheer about. The trend has improved and the figures are going in the right direction. Only 75 houses were delivered two years ago by local authorities throughout the country. That is not something anyone would cheer about. That figure was increased to more than 600 last year and this year more than 2,000 new houses will be...

Other Questions: Housing Provision (26 Oct 2017)

Damien English: One of them must have been Deputy Cowen's.

Other Questions: Housing Provision (26 Oct 2017)

Damien English: We all want those houses to be delivered more quickly. We have made improvements in that regard which have had an impact. There has not been enough of an impact and we are going to go even further. However, we have gone from 75 houses being built two years ago to over 2,000 this year and 3,800 will be delivered next year. There is no doubt about that. The rapid construction was not...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Property Tax Administration (26 Oct 2017)

Damien English: Local retention of local property tax, LPT, commenced in 2015 and is now established as an alternative and essential source of funding for the local government sector, thereby reducing reliance on central funding. The Government decided that 80% of the estimated LPT liability in each local authority area for a given year is retained in that area to fund public services,...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Property Tax Administration (26 Oct 2017)

Damien English: The baseline figures being used date back to 2005 rather than 2001. It is based on the 2005 assessment of the various services and income and expenditure as well. The Deputy is right that since then they have only been tweaked on a plus or minus basis every year thereafter. As the Deputy knows, the original needs resource model was cumbersome to manage and it did not always prove...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Property Tax Administration (26 Oct 2017)

Damien English: We are constantly looking at the funding situation of all local authorities. We are very conscious of the great differences between them. In accordance with Government decisions on local retention of the local property tax, certain local authorities with large property bases receive additional income from the local property tax compared with their baseline. The Government decided that...

Other Questions: Housing Provision (26 Oct 2017)

Damien English: Like many other counties around the country, Wexford has experienced a low level of construction activity, both public and private, over the last number of years. I spoke earlier about the shortage of money in the private and public sectors. Now that money is becoming available, we are trying to prioritise it for housing. A budget of €6 billion has been secured to fund housing...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Social and Affordable Housing Data (26 Oct 2017)

Damien English: Given the constraints on resources in the years following the economic downturn, the local authority house building programme had to be reduced dramatically. This was evident in all local authority areas, including in Tipperary, where just 11 social houses were constructed by the council in the period 2012 to 2016. The focus in recent years has, instead,  been more on achieving good...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Social and Affordable Housing Data (26 Oct 2017)

Damien English: There were 11 houses built.