Results 4,421-4,440 of 4,932 for speaker:Jennifer Murnane O'Connor

Seanad: Order of Business (10 Oct 2017)

Jennifer Murnane O'Connor: No. I am delighted with the good news.

Seanad: Order of Business (4 Oct 2017)

Jennifer Murnane O'Connor: We are all waiting anxiously for the budget. My concern is asthma. I have been speaking to several people, as have other Senators, about this condition. It is frightening to think 470,000 people in Ireland have asthma and up to 60% of those have an uncontrolled asthma, meaning they are at risk of an attack any time. Approximately, one person dies every week from asthma. Every 26 minutes,...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Pre-Legislative Scrutiny of the Draft General Scheme of the Building Control (Construction Industry Register Ireland) Bill 2017 (4 Oct 2017)

Jennifer Murnane O'Connor: Senator O'Sullivan asked one of my questions. It is very positive today. It is great to see there are 23,000 engineers because in recent years we all saw the effects of recession. My own son has a qualification and he had to emigrate. He is a civil engineer in Calgary in Canada. Is there an issue in this regard? We can speak about apprentices. We are in a housing crisis and there is to...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Pre-Legislative Scrutiny of the Draft General Scheme of the Building Control (Construction Industry Register Ireland) Bill 2017 (4 Oct 2017)

Jennifer Murnane O'Connor: Yes. That is very good .

Seanad: Order of Business (3 Oct 2017)

Jennifer Murnane O'Connor: I raise a local issue that I have raised several times previously with the Minister without success. Four months ago, we received the bad news that a proposed respite house in Bagenalstown would not proceed. Four or five months prior to that decision being taken, the HSE indicated to me that it was considering placing a deposit on a house in Tullow. Several weeks ago, in response to a...

Seanad: Order of Business (28 Sep 2017)

Jennifer Murnane O'Connor: As Members will be aware, this week has been designated Positive Aging Week. People are living longer. The Budget Statement will be announced in two weeks time and we will be looking for a fair budget for older people, a budget that recognises the contributions made in the past decades by more than 600,000 workers, those who worked in the home and in business who are all now pensioners....

Seanad: Housing: Statements (28 Sep 2017)

Jennifer Murnane O'Connor: This is my second time to address the Minister today. I know how hard he works and it is important that we all work together to ensure homelessness can be sorted. It is a year since the Government launched its Rebuilding Ireland: Action Plan for Housing and Homelessness. Recent trends include the lack of progress on new social housing construction, continued rent inflation, reduced rental...

Seanad: Housing: Statements (28 Sep 2017)

Jennifer Murnane O'Connor: I feel that too.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Action Plan for Housing and Homelessness: Minister for Housing, Planning and Local Government (Resumed) (28 Sep 2017)

Jennifer Murnane O'Connor: I thank the Minister for attending this morning. It was great to see him in Carlow. It is welcome to see houses being built but my biggest issue is that we do not get a timescale in that regard. The two housing estates the Minister was launching were brought to the local authorities two years ago. We are now two years on and a brick has not been laid on those two sites, although I...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Action Plan for Housing and Homelessness: Minister for Housing, Planning and Local Government (Resumed) (28 Sep 2017)

Jennifer Murnane O'Connor: The fact that we seem to be promoting Clúid and Respond! housing. Even in my local area, it is all Clúid and Respond! co-operative housing. That seems to be the way forward. We are not building enough social houses and that is an issue. I believe the Department is pushing those bodies. The credit unions with their loans are working more through those agencies than they are...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Action Plan for Housing and Homelessness: Minister for Housing, Planning and Local Government (Resumed) (28 Sep 2017)

Jennifer Murnane O'Connor: Tenants cannot own the home.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Action Plan for Housing and Homelessness: Minister for Housing, Planning and Local Government (Resumed) (28 Sep 2017)

Jennifer Murnane O'Connor: I thank the Minister. The issues that have been raised are very serious and members have been raising them for more than a year. The Minister held a housing summit with the chief executives of 31 local authorities. However, the issues raised by members are concerns that are not being addressed in local authority areas, such as the income thresholds for people trying to get on a housing...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Action Plan for Housing and Homelessness: Minister for Housing, Planning and Local Government (Resumed) (28 Sep 2017)

Jennifer Murnane O'Connor: The Minister is giving people false hope. When he says homelessness is not a problem-----

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Action Plan for Housing and Homelessness: Minister for Housing, Planning and Local Government (Resumed) (28 Sep 2017)

Jennifer Murnane O'Connor: -----he is giving people false hope.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Action Plan for Housing and Homelessness: Minister for Housing, Planning and Local Government (Resumed) (28 Sep 2017)

Jennifer Murnane O'Connor: It is a funding problem. That is giving people false hope.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Action Plan for Housing and Homelessness: Minister for Housing, Planning and Local Government (Resumed) (28 Sep 2017)

Jennifer Murnane O'Connor: The Minister is giving people false hope when he says there is no funding and we go to the county-----

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Action Plan for Housing and Homelessness: Minister for Housing, Planning and Local Government (Resumed) (28 Sep 2017)

Jennifer Murnane O'Connor: The homelessness crisis is getting worse. I do not-----

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Action Plan for Housing and Homelessness: Minister for Housing, Planning and Local Government (Resumed) (28 Sep 2017)

Jennifer Murnane O'Connor: -----understand how it is a problem but not a funding problem.

Seanad: Order of Business (26 Sep 2017)

Jennifer Murnane O'Connor: I welcome everyone back after our summer break. I am sure we were all doing clinics and were very busy. I want to raise the matter of local government funding. As Senators are aware, the 31 local authorities are preparing for the budget. We are also aware that each local authority has to have its local property tax budget meeting over by the end of September. I have massive concerns...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government: Housing Report: Dr. Mary Murphy and Dr. Rory Hearne, NUI Maynooth (20 Sep 2017)

Jennifer Murnane O'Connor: I agree totally with Deputy Casey, and I agree with the points made by the witnesses. The private rented market has been taken away from local authorities. If one wants to apply for housing assistance payment, HAP, one has to go to Cork. If one wants to get on the housing list, one might be waiting for up to six weeks before getting an appointment. In an emergency, that should be done...