Results 9,721-9,740 of 18,851 for speaker:Fergus O'Dowd
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government: Housing Rental Sector Strategy: Discussion (21 Feb 2017)
Fergus O'Dowd: I wish to inquire. If I am a tenant of an existing landlord who puts the rent up, does the RTB necessarily know about this? I am trying to get at the figure of €909 for Louth. How does the RTB know or not know? This is part of the problem. If I am an existing tenant, I must pay the increase because if I do not, I will be out on my ear. How does the RTB measure that? How does it...
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government: Housing Rental Sector Strategy: Discussion (21 Feb 2017)
Fergus O'Dowd: Will Ms Carroll define that exactly?
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government: Housing Rental Sector Strategy: Discussion (21 Feb 2017)
Fergus O'Dowd: I hear what Ms Carroll is saying but-----
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government: Housing Rental Sector Strategy: Discussion (21 Feb 2017)
Fergus O'Dowd: I just want to get further clarity on that.
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government: Housing Rental Sector Strategy: Discussion (21 Feb 2017)
Fergus O'Dowd: To return to remarks Ms Carroll from the RTB made, I went onto the RTB website and when I tried to interrogate some of the data, I realised how complex it was. I did not know about the €20,000 fine that can apply. It would be useful if this information could be circulated among the Members of the Oireachtas. I should have known about this because I would like to be able to say this...
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government: Housing Rental Sector Strategy: Discussion (21 Feb 2017)
Fergus O'Dowd: My constituents in Drogheda, Dundalk and Ardee are very angry about what is happening.
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government: Housing Rental Sector Strategy: Discussion (21 Feb 2017)
Fergus O'Dowd: How is that weighted average interrogated? I am not a mathematician. Could the RTB send on details about it so that I can interrogate it in my own quiet way.
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government: Housing Rental Sector Strategy: Discussion (21 Feb 2017)
Fergus O'Dowd: I accept that.
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government: Housing Rental Sector Strategy: Discussion (21 Feb 2017)
Fergus O'Dowd: Part of my electorate, believe it or not, is within the rent pressure zone in part of County Meath but the make-up of the houses there is somewhat different than it is in the town. Therefore, how does the RTB know that it is not discriminating in its formula against a significant number of small urban dwellings? I acknowledge that is part of what it is dealing with. I will read the...
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government: Housing Rental Sector Strategy: Discussion (21 Feb 2017)
Fergus O'Dowd: To return to that HAP question, if there are HAP payments in some areas outside rent pressure zones that are higher than HAP payments for families in the same kind of accommodation in rent pressure zones, how does the Department sort that one out, because that is what is happening?
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government: Housing Rental Sector Strategy: Discussion (21 Feb 2017)
Fergus O'Dowd: The facts are that HAP payments are higher in County Louth than they are in some of the rent pressure zones. That is the inequality that is there.
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government: Housing Rental Sector Strategy: Discussion (21 Feb 2017)
Fergus O'Dowd: In another life I worked with Mr. Cussen and found him very helpful. He is very intuitive in terms of the political needs of one's constituency. I say that respectfully. This is a huge debate. I welcome the Minister's publication yesterday of an itemised list of housing supports, changes and improvements that are coming on stream. It certainly outlines what is happening in County...
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government: Housing Rental Sector Strategy: Discussion (21 Feb 2017)
Fergus O'Dowd: I welcome the Department's contribution. Rather than talking about the flight of investors, I would like to discuss the plight of tenants, which is uppermost in my mind. Investors are running all the way to the bank with increased rents. For instance, a single-bedroom apartment in Drogheda was available for €600 a month before Christmas but it was let for more than €1,100 in...
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government: Housing Rental Sector Strategy: Discussion (21 Feb 2017)
Fergus O'Dowd: If everybody in a nursing home had a home that was a principal private residence, the Department might be lucky to get 25,000 back in. I am not in favour of that. I am not in favour of putting pressure on people in nursing homes. The average lifespan of someone in a nursing home is between two and a half to three years. People are very vulnerable, can be extremely unwell and isolated and...
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government: Housing Rental Sector Strategy: Discussion (21 Feb 2017)
Fergus O'Dowd: Perhaps it is a different committee, but I asked the Minister in the Dáil whether he would refer the issue of empty non-principal private residences to the committee to which Mr. Ó Cléirigh referred. At least I think that is the committee he was talking about. Is that under review or will the committee be looking at that issue? There is a lacuna of information because we...
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government: Housing Rental Sector Strategy: Discussion (21 Feb 2017)
Fergus O'Dowd: They are called sticks.
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government: Housing Rental Sector Strategy: Discussion (21 Feb 2017)
Fergus O'Dowd: On landlords. That is the-----
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government: Housing Rental Sector Strategy: Discussion (21 Feb 2017)
Fergus O'Dowd: Will the research I am talking about be done by the witness's group? Somebody may have already done that research somewhere.
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government: Housing Rental Sector Strategy: Discussion (21 Feb 2017)
Fergus O'Dowd: I think the key point is the experience of the Empty Homes Agency of the United Kingdom. There is the property tax on empty homes in the United Kingdom. I know of Vancouver because I found that information on the Internet. There is a lot of other stuff there. I respectfully say that it needs to be done. I do not say that rudely. It needs to be done urgently by a State body like the...
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government: Housing Rental Sector Strategy: Discussion (21 Feb 2017)
Fergus O'Dowd: I will of course.