Results 4,421-4,440 of 4,773 for speaker:Paudie Coffey

Seanad: Housing (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2008: Report and Final Stages (10 Dec 2008)

Paudie Coffey: According to the Minister of State, the Bill provides housing authorities with discretion to make provision for the homeless through a percentage of their allocations. On the other side of the coin, authorities will also have discretion to provide no allocation and for that reason we tabled the amendment.

Seanad: Housing (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2008: Report and Final Stages (10 Dec 2008)

Paudie Coffey: Hear, hear.

Seanad: Housing (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2008: Report and Final Stages (10 Dec 2008)

Paudie Coffey: Notwithstanding the Minister of State's commitment to introduce legislation to deal with local homelessness action plans, I cannot understand why we cannot make provision for it in this Bill. After all, it is a housing Bill. We have debated this long and hard during the preceding Stages. Amendment No. 16 is substantial. All we are calling for is the establishment of a local homelessness...

Seanad: Housing (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2008: Report and Final Stages (10 Dec 2008)

Paudie Coffey: I move amendment No. 2: In page 10, line 21, after "services" to insert "and tenancy services". The rationale behind amendment No. 2 is to make specific provision for "tenancy services" rather than "services" alone.

Seanad: Housing (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2008: Report and Final Stages (10 Dec 2008)

Paudie Coffey: I call a quorum.

Seanad: Housing (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2008: Report and Final Stages (10 Dec 2008)

Paudie Coffey: The Government Members are supposed to be here.

Seanad: Housing (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2008: Report and Final Stages (10 Dec 2008)

Paudie Coffey: Stay in the House. The Senator has not contributed once to this Bill.

Seanad: Housing (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2008: Report and Final Stages (10 Dec 2008)

Paudie Coffey: Senator Callely has not contributed on this Bill, yet he has the temerity to lecture this side of the House.

Seanad: Housing (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2008: Report and Final Stages (10 Dec 2008)

Paudie Coffey: I second the amendment.

Seanad: Housing (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2008: Report and Final Stages (10 Dec 2008)

Paudie Coffey: I move amendment No. 16: In page 16, between lines 10 and 11, to insert the following: "19. —Each housing authority shall establish a local homeless forum within its administrative area for the purposes of developing and implementing a local homeless action plan. Each local homeless forum shall include approved bodies involved in the provision of housing and homeless services within the...

Seanad: Housing (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2008: Report and Final Stages (10 Dec 2008)

Paudie Coffey: I second the amendment.

Seanad: Housing (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2008: Report and Final Stages (10 Dec 2008)

Paudie Coffey: I second the amendment. We tabled this and similar amendments on Committee Stage to reinforce the provision for the homeless in the Bill.

Seanad: Order of Business (10 Dec 2008)

Paudie Coffey: I refer very briefly to the pork crisis. I thank the Leader for making time available today for statements on this matter. The agrifood sector has significant potential to exploit international markets but it is badly damaged. We must ask ourselves why this crisis happened and how we responded to it. I hope that will be addressed in today's debate. We do not have a State laboratory with...

Seanad: Order of Business (4 Dec 2008)

Paudie Coffey: I wish to follow up on some of the sentiments offered by my colleague, Senator Joe O'Reilly, with regard to apprentices. Thousands of young apprentices half way through their various apprenticeship courses are being let off and left stranded and abandoned. I support the call for FÁS, or whatever agencies, to engage with those apprentices to try to find a way for them to finish their...

Seanad: Housing (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2008: Committee Stage (Resumed) (3 Dec 2008)

Paudie Coffey: I want to comment on the sale of the apartments. I welcome the Minister of State's comments that he intends to work on that aspect because it is disappointing that citizens in local authority apartments do not have the same rights as those in dwellings. That is an issue that should be addressed in the interest of equality across all tenancies run by housing authorities. It should be...

Seanad: Housing (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2008: Committee Stage (Resumed) (3 Dec 2008)

Paudie Coffey: I accept the Minister of State's comments but I remind him they are financed by taxpayers' money, with the approval of the relevant local authority and the Department of the Environment, Heritage and Local Government. I raise the issue because tenants in these houses do not understand why they do not have the same rights to purchase when the voluntary housing associations have received their...

Seanad: Housing (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2008: Committee Stage (Resumed) (3 Dec 2008)

Paudie Coffey: We welcome this amendment because the experience of many local authorities that have paid adaptation grants in the past is that when the resident died, they could not recoup the money, despite a great deal of investment in the houses. This is a good provision, which I welcome.

Seanad: Housing (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2008: Committee Stage (Resumed) (3 Dec 2008)

Paudie Coffey: Can I discuss section 34?

Seanad: Housing (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2008: Committee Stage (Resumed) (3 Dec 2008)

Paudie Coffey: I understood the amendment No. 72 was included in the discussion, and that I may not be allowed speak on that amendment at a later stage.

Seanad: Housing (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2008: Committee Stage (Resumed) (3 Dec 2008)

Paudie Coffey: My party is not opposing these amendments. However, I have a number of queries for the Minister of State. Given that market prices have fallen sharply recently, how does that effect housing authorities' responsibilities in terms of shared ownership arrangements? House prices have fallen dramatically and many people are locked into shared ownership schemes at what would now seem to be...