Results 6,581-6,600 of 9,814 for speaker:Steven Matthews

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Urban and Rural Regeneration: Discussion (Resumed) (8 Mar 2022)

Steven Matthews: If witnesses from the Department of Rural and Community Development wish to come in any of these questions, could they raise a hand? When we have these hybrid meetings, we tend to focus on who is in the room and sometimes do not pay attention to who is online. Has Deputy Higgins finished her line of questioning?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Urban and Rural Regeneration: Discussion (Resumed) (8 Mar 2022)

Steven Matthews: I think I can speak on behalf of the committee and say we would be committed to working with the witnesses on that because this series of four meetings relating to has generated huge interest. I look forward to producing a report at the end of it.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Urban and Rural Regeneration: Discussion (Resumed) (8 Mar 2022)

Steven Matthews: Have our guests done any recent research into street designs and how we lay out our streets? Can that be contributory to dereliction and vacancy? A street that is car-dominated, has two lanes of traffic, parking on either side of the road and narrow footpaths is not a nice place to be as a pedestrian. It may not be a place where one would like to shop. The whole street then becomes worn...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Urban and Rural Regeneration: Discussion (Resumed) (8 Mar 2022)

Steven Matthews: I realise we are crossing somewhat into the active travel area and the remit of the Department of Transport but there is definitely close co-operation between the local authorities on active transport and the URDF in linking those places up.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Urban and Rural Regeneration: Discussion (Resumed) (8 Mar 2022)

Steven Matthews: This leads me on to another question. We hear a great deal about the big-ticket items such as the €81 million project mentioned by Mr. Logan in Waterford on the North Quays. If I am a private building owner, and the Department has done a very nice square, a public space, under the new URDF, and I want to develop my second or third floor into apartments and residential living space,...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Urban and Rural Regeneration: Discussion (Resumed) (8 Mar 2022)

Steven Matthews: I am conscious there is often criticism of local authorities but, from my experience, they are doing fantastic work out there, particularly in areas of planning and active transport. I give the example of local authorities which have a county architect, someone who is able to oversee these projects from above and see how all of these parts work together. That is one of the additional...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Urban and Rural Regeneration: Discussion (Resumed) (8 Mar 2022)

Steven Matthews: I am only halfway through the Town Centre First document and even less through Our Rural Future but I like what I have read so far. I will now move on to-----

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Urban and Rural Regeneration: Discussion (Resumed) (8 Mar 2022)

Steven Matthews: I will open up to the third round of questions. If anybody wishes to raise his or her hand to ask any further questions, he or she may do so. I call Senator Boyhan.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Urban and Rural Regeneration: Discussion (Resumed) (8 Mar 2022)

Steven Matthews: I have a couple of questions to finish off. I remember when the URDF and RRDF were announced and I seem to remember a climate resilience fund being announced at the same time of €500 million. Does anybody recall that at the time of the announcement?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Urban and Rural Regeneration: Discussion (Resumed) (8 Mar 2022)

Steven Matthews: We can approach it as well. The opening statement of the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage speaks about the Town Centre First policy. The next call is for projects for towns and aligning town centres first, which is good. That is what we want to see. The criteria will also specifically identify tackling vacancy. Will Ms Graham give some detail on how the application...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Urban and Rural Regeneration: Discussion (Resumed) (8 Mar 2022)

Steven Matthews: When Ms Graham talks about tackling vacancy, I am conscious that when we start really looking at the detail of vacancy and dereliction, there can be a vacant home, site or commercial building. Those would not be derelict but rather just vacant. In tackling vacancy, is Ms Graham speaking about vacant buildings that used to have a commercial use in our towns? Is that the aim?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Urban and Rural Regeneration: Discussion (Resumed) (8 Mar 2022)

Steven Matthews: Okay. Does the same apply in the case of dereliction?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Urban and Rural Regeneration: Discussion (Resumed) (8 Mar 2022)

Steven Matthews: Ms Graham spoke about the emphasis on the core in the cities. Is it the same for our town and village renewal? Are we concentrating on the town centre or is that just something used in the cities?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Urban and Rural Regeneration: Discussion (Resumed) (8 Mar 2022)

Steven Matthews: I have heard the Deputy raise that issue in the Dáil Chamber as well. I agree with him. Is the Law Reform Commission looking at compulsory sales orders? We have heard talk about compulsory sales orders and we know about CPO. Are compulsory sales orders on the agenda at all? I know Scotland was looking at them but it ran into constitutional difficulties.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Urban and Rural Regeneration: Discussion (Resumed) (8 Mar 2022)

Steven Matthews: We might ask them ourselves. I call Deputy Gould.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Urban and Rural Regeneration: Discussion (Resumed) (8 Mar 2022)

Steven Matthews: As public representatives, we often get suggestions that town X gets everything and town Y gets nothing, or district X gets all the funding and district Y does not. When the Department is trying to judge the applications, does it try to look for equity across the country based on per capitaor population figures? This is very substantial and significant funding that can lift any town or...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Urban and Rural Regeneration: Discussion (Resumed) (8 Mar 2022)

Steven Matthews: Is feedback given to them?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Urban and Rural Regeneration: Discussion (Resumed) (8 Mar 2022)

Steven Matthews: I will give Mr. O'Brien the last word on it.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Urban and Rural Regeneration: Discussion (Resumed) (8 Mar 2022)

Steven Matthews: That brings us to the end of our time. This is the fourth meeting in the series of four we have had. They have been very informative and interesting for the committee. We have had very good engagement on this matter and we will now produce a report on it. Aside from the Housing for All policy, which contains some very good objectives, if we can successfully implement many of the...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: All-Island Strategic Rail Review: Discussion (Resumed) (8 Mar 2022)

Steven Matthews: I welcome all our guests to the meeting and thank them for their submissions. They have considerable experience of railways and lobbying for railways. They want to see railways upgraded and restored throughout the county. I am also conscious we have with us representatives from the Great Western Greenway. I particularly compliment the submission of the delegation from north Tipperary....