Results 4,141-4,160 of 11,114 for speaker:Damien English

Residential Tenancies (Housing Emergency Measures in the Public Interest) (Amendment) Bill 2016: Second Stage [Private Members] (18 May 2017)

Damien English: He is on his way. He is trying to be here.

Topical Issue Debate: Homeless Persons Supports (18 May 2017)

Damien English: More than 500 tenancies have been achieved to date in 2017. They are people presented new to being homeless and were found accommodation through the HAP scheme and other schemes. With regard to the family hubs, I have been in them and I ask the Deputy to go and have a look at some of them. I visited the Respond! hub and the Mater Dei facility, which will be ready in June. They are very...

Topical Issue Debate: Homeless Persons Supports (18 May 2017)

Damien English: In some cases, people who are in hotels might first transition to a family hub-----

Topical Issue Debate: Homeless Persons Supports (18 May 2017)

Damien English: -----but the intention still stands that by the end of June this year-----

Topical Issue Debate: Homeless Persons Supports (18 May 2017)

Damien English: -----those people in hotels will be out of hotels.

Topical Issue Debate: Hospital Consultant Recruitment (18 May 2017)

Damien English: I am, yes.

Topical Issue Debate: Hospital Consultant Recruitment (18 May 2017)

Damien English: I am here to answer the question raised by Deputy Jack Chambers. The Minister, Deputy Harris, had hoped to be present but as the Deputy is aware, the timing of this moved quite a bit today. It is normal practice for the Minister or one of his Ministers of State to cover these issues, and the Deputy knows that. To be fair, there is no point in him trying to go down that road because it is...

Topical Issue Debate: Hospital Consultant Recruitment (18 May 2017)

Damien English: Generally, they are here as often as possible. I am taking the matter on behalf of the Minister, Deputy Harris. I want to thank the Deputy for raising it and giving me the opportunity to provide clarification. I want to be clear, on behalf of the Minister for Health, that he expects the HSE to comply with statutory and policy requirements when filling consultant posts. He also...

Topical Issue Debate: Hospital Consultant Recruitment (18 May 2017)

Damien English: -----and would be on a division of the Medical Council register. They are also fully qualified to practise medicine. At a national level, health policy remains the development of a consultant provided service as per the report of the national task force on medical staffing, the Hanly report, and the reports of the strategic review of medical training and career structures, that is, the...

Topical Issue Debate: Homeless Persons Supports (18 May 2017)

Damien English: I thank the Deputy for raising the issue. It is not an ideological issue that we are relying on the private sector. We recognise we cannot provide overnight enough social housing to be able to deal with the situation.

Topical Issue Debate: Homeless Persons Supports (18 May 2017)

Damien English: We have a housing programme that has started, and Deputy Broughan is well aware of it. We have secured the largest investment ever in the State, secured by the Minister, Deputy Coveney, to invest in this area. The Deputy referred to the previous two Governments. If he checks the records he will see the provision of social housing was wound down before Fine Gael came into government and...

Topical Issue Debate: Homeless Persons Supports (18 May 2017)

Damien English: We did not do it. We have done our best to ramp it back up again. Just to be clear on the record, it was not a Fine Gael decision to stop-----

Topical Issue Debate: Homeless Persons Supports (18 May 2017)

Damien English: I just want to be clear, and I want to put this on the record because I am sick and tired of being told it is my party which stopped social housing. We did not. We are the ones who are putting social housing front and centre in what the Government and local government is doing. I have been around the country with local authorities telling them that we expect, and we want to continue with...

Topical Issue Debate: Homeless Persons Supports (18 May 2017)

Damien English: That is not what the Deputy said. He did not say in his area, he said it is not working and he is wrong in that.

Topical Issue Debate: Homeless Persons Supports (18 May 2017)

Damien English: The Deputy is wrong as 3,000 left last year. Accommodating family units in hotel arrangements is inappropriate for anything other than a short period of time, and I totally and utterly agree with the Deputy on that. Accordingly, Rebuilding Ireland makes explicit the commitment to ensure that by mid-2017 hotels will only be used as emergency accommodation in limited circumstances. The...

Topical Issue Debate: Homeless Persons Supports (18 May 2017)

Damien English: The Deputy raised several issues. Some rapid build construction houses are being sold privately for more than €500,000.

Topical Issue Debate: Homeless Persons Supports (18 May 2017)

Damien English: They are not modular homes. They are proper houses that will last 60, 70, 80 or 100 years. Do not try to give the impression they are not that.

Topical Issue Debate: Homeless Persons Supports (18 May 2017)

Damien English: I did actually, probably more so than most people here.

Topical Issue Debate: Homeless Persons Supports (18 May 2017)

Damien English: I know what I am talking about. I have seen rapid build and every type of build. The Deputy can trust me I have watched rapid build houses being built and sold for more than €500,000. Do not try to give the impression they are some sort of a pretend house, and not a real house or a permanent house, because that is not what they are. They are a genuinely good house.

Topical Issue Debate: Homeless Persons Supports (18 May 2017)

Damien English: There are many different types of rapid build construction. The Deputy said HAP is not working. It is only one of the solutions, and family hubs and purchasing houses through the Housing Agency and using houses through the sale and lease back scheme, are all options that bring in more houses, but the Deputy keeps insisting that HAP is not working. To me, HAP is a better scheme than the...