Results 9,021-9,040 of 17,531 for speaker:Jan O'Sullivan

Committee on Environment, Culture and the Gaeltacht: Select Sub-Committee on the Environment, Community and Local Government: Housing (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2014: Committee Stage (4 Jun 2014)

Jan O'Sullivan: I move amendment No. 26: In page 56, between lines 6 and 7, to insert the following:“Review of certain decisions 46.(1) Other than in respect of decisions on a review under this section, the Minister may prescribe one or more than one class of decision made by a housing authority under this Part (in this section referred to as a “prescribed decision”) to which this...

Committee on Environment, Culture and the Gaeltacht: Select Sub-Committee on the Environment, Community and Local Government: Housing (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2014: Committee Stage (4 Jun 2014)

Jan O'Sullivan: The Ombudsman's office is available in these circumstances also.

Committee on Environment, Culture and the Gaeltacht: Select Sub-Committee on the Environment, Community and Local Government: Housing (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2014: Committee Stage (4 Jun 2014)

Jan O'Sullivan: I move amendment No. 27: In page 57, to delete lines 6 to 20 and substitute the following:“ “(5A) (a) Subject to paragraph (b), a household in receipt of social housing support shall cease to be eligible for such support where⁠—(i) in the preceding 3 years, the household or a household member was in arrears of rent, rent contributions, charges, fees or any other...

Committee on Environment, Culture and the Gaeltacht: Select Sub-Committee on the Environment, Community and Local Government: Housing (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2014: Committee Stage (4 Jun 2014)

Jan O'Sullivan: I move amendment No. 28: In page 57, line 36, to delete "subsection."," and substitute the following:"subsection.(c) In this subsection 'specified form of social housing support' means social housing support of a kind referred to in paragraph (a), (b) or (d) of section 19(2).",".The amendment to section 46(2)(f) is necessary to insert a definition of "specified form of social housing support"...

Committee on Environment, Culture and the Gaeltacht: Select Sub-Committee on the Environment, Community and Local Government: Housing (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2014: Committee Stage (4 Jun 2014)

Jan O'Sullivan: I move amendment No. 24: In page 48, between lines 24 and 25, to insert the following:“(3) In providing housing assistance to a qualified household in accordance with subsection (1), a housing authority shall ensure that, in respect of the financial year concerned, the aggregate of the authority’s payments of such assistance does not exceed the moneys made available to the...

Committee on Environment, Culture and the Gaeltacht: Select Sub-Committee on the Environment, Community and Local Government: Housing (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2014: Committee Stage (4 Jun 2014)

Jan O'Sullivan: Under this section the local authority will not have a legal obligation but there will be an administrative provision for the payment of the rent. The Private Residential Tenancies Board is the arbiter between the landlord and the tenant.

Committee on Environment, Culture and the Gaeltacht: Select Sub-Committee on the Environment, Community and Local Government: Housing (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2014: Committee Stage (4 Jun 2014)

Jan O'Sullivan: I think it is purely a legal provision because of the legal obligations. The local authority is paying the rent on behalf of the tenant but the relationship is between the landlord and the tenant.

Committee on Environment, Culture and the Gaeltacht: Select Sub-Committee on the Environment, Community and Local Government: Housing (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2014: Committee Stage (4 Jun 2014)

Jan O'Sullivan: I will try to clarify it better on Report Stage.

Committee on Environment, Culture and the Gaeltacht: Select Sub-Committee on the Environment, Community and Local Government: Housing (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2014: Committee Stage (4 Jun 2014)

Jan O'Sullivan: We wanted to give some time so that people would not be held up in getting a property because they had to wait for the local authority to inspect it. We need to prescribe the length of time and we will try to keep it as short as possible.

Committee on Environment, Culture and the Gaeltacht: Select Sub-Committee on the Environment, Community and Local Government: Housing (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2014: Committee Stage (4 Jun 2014)

Jan O'Sullivan: Deputy, may I clarify that issue on Report Stage in view of the time constraints?

Committee on Environment, Culture and the Gaeltacht: Select Sub-Committee on the Environment, Community and Local Government: Housing (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2014: Committee Stage (4 Jun 2014)

Jan O'Sullivan: Yes.

Committee on Environment, Culture and the Gaeltacht: Select Sub-Committee on the Environment, Community and Local Government: Housing (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2014: Committee Stage (4 Jun 2014)

Jan O'Sullivan: None of us wants topping up to happen, as it impoverishes people. The Department of Social Protection asks, if there are false declarations, that they be reported to departmental representatives, who will discuss the circumstances of any case. The point Deputies are really raising is that people cannot find accommodation. Households sourcing accommodation themselves is the norm with regard...

Committee on Environment, Culture and the Gaeltacht: Select Sub-Committee on the Environment, Community and Local Government: Housing (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2014: Committee Stage (4 Jun 2014)

Jan O'Sullivan: I said on Second Stage that people will be eligible for a transfer into a local house from the housing assistance payment, HAP. Each local authority has allocation schemes in this regard. Already, if a person is in council housing which is inappropriate, he or she can be transferred to more suitable accommodation. Therefore, these people will be eligible to be transferred into a local...

Committee on Environment, Culture and the Gaeltacht: Select Sub-Committee on the Environment, Community and Local Government: Housing (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2014: Committee Stage (4 Jun 2014)

Jan O'Sullivan: This has to do with where people share a house and qualify for partial assistance as they are not considered to be one household. There are some, but not many, situations where this happens but they qualify separately for support.

Committee on Environment, Culture and the Gaeltacht: Select Sub-Committee on the Environment, Community and Local Government: Housing (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2014: Committee Stage (4 Jun 2014)

Jan O'Sullivan: Yes, it is where they currently qualify separately for rent supplement. It might, for example, be two or more single women who have their individual space but share some parts of the house. This provision is to provide for a process that already exists in the context of rent supplement.

Committee on Environment, Culture and the Gaeltacht: Select Sub-Committee on the Environment, Community and Local Government: Housing (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2014: Committee Stage (4 Jun 2014)

Jan O'Sullivan: I move amendment No. 23: In page 48, line 12, after “may” to insert “, subject to subsection (3),”.These two amendments are linked. Amendment No. 23 is a technical amendment that will allow for amendment No. 24. This amendment tempers the demand driven element of the new housing assistance payment to take account of affordability, from the perspective of the...

Committee on Environment, Culture and the Gaeltacht: Select Sub-Committee on the Environment, Community and Local Government: Housing (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2014: Committee Stage (4 Jun 2014)

Jan O'Sullivan: The specific wording of this provision does not stitch us into current rent caps. The reference to a cap is not to rent caps but to the overall availability of funding for the scheme. One of the officials here with me today is from the Department of Social Protection, which has commenced a rent review which will be completed in time to feed into the budgetary process. That review will be...

Committee on Environment, Culture and the Gaeltacht: Select Sub-Committee on the Environment, Community and Local Government: Housing (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2014: Committee Stage (4 Jun 2014)

Jan O'Sullivan: I agree with Deputy Ellis that we need to look at rent control but we do not have it here right now. Whether we like it or not, the current position is that the money is going into landlords' pockets and the question is whether we leave it with the Deposit Protection Service, DSP. What was meant to be a short-term payment of rent supplement effectively has become long-term for many people...

Committee on Environment, Culture and the Gaeltacht: Select Sub-Committee on the Environment, Community and Local Government: Housing (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2014: Committee Stage (4 Jun 2014)

Jan O'Sullivan: -----whereas this scheme will involve the tenant's proportion behind deducted at source and the entire amount due to the landlord being paid to the landlord by the local authority. In that sense I am not so sure about it. We will have to see what happens as it rolls out. As the Deputy knows, it started in one local authority and will roll out in an additional six this year, and gradually...

Committee on Environment, Culture and the Gaeltacht: Select Sub-Committee on the Environment, Community and Local Government: Housing (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2014: Committee Stage (4 Jun 2014)

Jan O'Sullivan: I did not answer that the first time. I will come back to that.