Results 7,481-7,500 of 9,368 for speaker:Verona Murphy

Public Accounts Committee: 2020 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Residential Tenancies Board - Financial Statements 2020 (24 Feb 2022)

Verona Murphy: It is all at a cost, however. The taxpayer is paying all the time, and there are people who cannot eat because they are trying to pay exorbitant rents. That is a fact of life. We are all sitting here in a dry, comfortable space while the anxiety among people in respect of what is happening in the real world is mind-boggling. I do not want to sit here discussing millions of euro as if they...

Public Accounts Committee: 2020 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Residential Tenancies Board - Financial Statements 2020 (24 Feb 2022)

Verona Murphy: That answers that question. Rents in County Wexford in the final quarter of 2021 alone increased by 15%. Was that anticipated? Did any research take place to say there were only so many houses available in Wexford and to take account of the fact rents would increase? One tenant who has approached me was paying €800 in rent and the landlord increased that by €175 within two...

Public Accounts Committee: 2020 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Residential Tenancies Board - Financial Statements 2020 (24 Feb 2022)

Verona Murphy: I asked how the RTB advises the Government. This is a crisis because we are not building houses to alleviate the problem, so we have to do something about the rental market. Mr. Dunne stated that the rent increases were the same as increases in earnings. I would understand an increase in earnings of 15% if somebody was working for Davy but not if he or she worked for a supermarket or a...

Public Accounts Committee: 2020 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Residential Tenancies Board - Financial Statements 2020 (24 Feb 2022)

Verona Murphy: I am concerned about the level of interpretation here as regards how we are managing this and what advice the Government is getting. The Taoiseach made a statement about how the Berlin system of rent controls has not worked; I beg to differ, but not in this forum. I want to know how the RTB, as an organisation paid for solely out of taxpayers' money, advises the Government on what actions...

Public Accounts Committee: 2020 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Residential Tenancies Board - Financial Statements 2020 (24 Feb 2022)

Verona Murphy: I know what the RTB's function is. I am asking Mr. Dunne what information the board has provided.

Public Accounts Committee: 2020 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Residential Tenancies Board - Financial Statements 2020 (24 Feb 2022)

Verona Murphy: How does the RTB prevent an increase of 15% in a county such as Wexford?

Public Accounts Committee: 2020 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Residential Tenancies Board - Financial Statements 2020 (24 Feb 2022)

Verona Murphy: How does the RTB advise the Government, in that case?

Public Accounts Committee: 2020 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Residential Tenancies Board - Financial Statements 2020 (24 Feb 2022)

Verona Murphy: Does the board know how many houses are available to rent in Wexford?

Public Accounts Committee: 2020 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Residential Tenancies Board - Financial Statements 2020 (24 Feb 2022)

Verona Murphy: That does not concern the board.

Public Accounts Committee: 2020 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Residential Tenancies Board - Financial Statements 2020 (24 Feb 2022)

Verona Murphy: That is what I am trying to get to the nub of. How much information does the RTB have to corroborate the advice it gives to the Government? If we are not building houses, rents will continue to increase. If we are not able to curb supply-and-demand issues, we will continue to have a serious problem with rent, as we do currently. I acknowledge this is not our guests' area, but last week...

Public Accounts Committee: 2020 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Residential Tenancies Board - Financial Statements 2020 (24 Feb 2022)

Verona Murphy: This might not be a matter for this forum, but I have encountered an issue where a HAP tenant has been trying to be released from HAP for four months and he has not yet got a call back from the Department. Is that not unbelievable? This is at a time when we are under such severe constrains regarding money, housing and everything else. I return to the issue in Wexford. It is an exorbitant...

Public Accounts Committee: 2020 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Residential Tenancies Board - Financial Statements 2020 (24 Feb 2022)

Verona Murphy: Yes.

Public Accounts Committee: 2020 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Residential Tenancies Board - Financial Statements 2020 (24 Feb 2022)

Verona Murphy: It is not just Oireachtas Members. The most frequent complaint that I hear from landlords is about response times or getting phone calls answered. Their main complaint is that if a tenant makes a complaint one can ring landlords instantly, although that is their analogy, but if landlords have a problem with a tenant and need advice then they cannot even get a callback and in that case I...

Public Accounts Committee: 2020 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Residential Tenancies Board - Financial Statements 2020 (24 Feb 2022)

Verona Murphy: I appreciate that but I would have thought that that was an important piece of data necessary for compiling advice on rent controls. Obviously the board knows where the pressure zones are going to be and it is how that data is compiled, and how the board provides that.

Public Accounts Committee: 2020 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Residential Tenancies Board - Financial Statements 2020 (24 Feb 2022)

Verona Murphy: Yes.

Public Accounts Committee: 2020 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Residential Tenancies Board - Financial Statements 2020 (24 Feb 2022)

Verona Murphy: Does the RTB commission the information or is it told what to commission?

Written Answers — Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport: Driver Licences (24 Feb 2022)

Verona Murphy: 220. To ask the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport further to Parliamentary Question No. 49 of 9 February 2022, if the persons assigned within the Road Safety Authority, RSA, with responsibility for the establishment of an exchange agreement on driving licences between Ireland and Ukraine are currently in active employment; if they are absent from the workplace; if the project will be...

Written Answers — Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport: Transport Policy (24 Feb 2022)

Verona Murphy: 221. To ask the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport if his attention has been drawn to the recruitment crisis currently facing the transport sector; the steps and assistance his Department is providing to resolve the crisis and bring additional drivers into the sector; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [10666/22]

Written Answers — Department of Health: Health Services Staff (24 Feb 2022)

Verona Murphy: 366. To ask the Minister for Health the current level of HSE podiatry staff servicing acute and community services in County Wexford; if he will provide an update on plans to improve these services for persons with diabetes in County Wexford and nationally; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [10667/22]

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (23 Feb 2022)

Verona Murphy: That is what the report says.