Results 1,061-1,080 of 4,350 for speaker:Bobby Aylward

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (25 Oct 2018)

Bobby Aylward: Have we heard anything on the school buses? I made a request-----

Public Accounts Committee: 2017 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Chapter 10 - Funding and Oversight of Approved Housing Bodies
Vote 34 - Housing, Planning and Local Government
2017 Financial Statements - Housing Agency (25 Oct 2018)

Bobby Aylward: I welcome our guests. I am sorry that I missed some of the debate. I was present initially but then I had to leave due to other commitments. I apologise if I repeat questions that have been asked. I will start with Mr. McCarthy and his report, which was glowing and it looked good in terms of where we are going. The view is that we seem to be getting on top of the housing issue but that...

Public Accounts Committee: 2017 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Chapter 10 - Funding and Oversight of Approved Housing Bodies
Vote 34 - Housing, Planning and Local Government
2017 Financial Statements - Housing Agency (25 Oct 2018)

Bobby Aylward: Does Mr. John McCarthy accept-----

Public Accounts Committee: 2017 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Chapter 10 - Funding and Oversight of Approved Housing Bodies
Vote 34 - Housing, Planning and Local Government
2017 Financial Statements - Housing Agency (25 Oct 2018)

Bobby Aylward: So Mr. John McCarthy admits that the situation is not all hunky-dory and that we have a long way to go to even catch up. Is that correct?

Public Accounts Committee: 2017 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Chapter 10 - Funding and Oversight of Approved Housing Bodies
Vote 34 - Housing, Planning and Local Government
2017 Financial Statements - Housing Agency (25 Oct 2018)

Bobby Aylward: As long as that is recognised. The report seemed to suggest that things are better.

Public Accounts Committee: 2017 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Chapter 10 - Funding and Oversight of Approved Housing Bodies
Vote 34 - Housing, Planning and Local Government
2017 Financial Statements - Housing Agency (25 Oct 2018)

Bobby Aylward: I have a question about the mortgage-to-rent scheme, which is probably directed at the AHBs. I have tried to get AHBs to intervene and invest in mortgage-to-rent schemes in Kilkenny. I contacted a few of them and I was told they were not interested on the basis that it was too costly and there was too much difficulty attached. I was very disappointed with the response I got. I mentioned...

Public Accounts Committee: 2017 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Chapter 10 - Funding and Oversight of Approved Housing Bodies
Vote 34 - Housing, Planning and Local Government
2017 Financial Statements - Housing Agency (25 Oct 2018)

Bobby Aylward: We went through all of this.

Public Accounts Committee: 2017 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Chapter 10 - Funding and Oversight of Approved Housing Bodies
Vote 34 - Housing, Planning and Local Government
2017 Financial Statements - Housing Agency (25 Oct 2018)

Bobby Aylward: I know all of this, as we have been through it, but, ultimately, there was no one in the approved housing bodies willing to take on any of the houses, certainly among the ones I approached. When I asked them why, they said they were not interested in the scheme because there were costs involved in bringing houses up to a certain standard and so on. I said that was nonsense where there were...

Public Accounts Committee: 2017 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Chapter 10 - Funding and Oversight of Approved Housing Bodies
Vote 34 - Housing, Planning and Local Government
2017 Financial Statements - Housing Agency (25 Oct 2018)

Bobby Aylward: This was two years ago.

Public Accounts Committee: 2017 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Chapter 10 - Funding and Oversight of Approved Housing Bodies
Vote 34 - Housing, Planning and Local Government
2017 Financial Statements - Housing Agency (25 Oct 2018)

Bobby Aylward: Is Mr. O'Connor saying that if I had contacted him instead of some of the voluntary housing bodies, this option could have been examined and facilitated?

Public Accounts Committee: 2017 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Chapter 10 - Funding and Oversight of Approved Housing Bodies
Vote 34 - Housing, Planning and Local Government
2017 Financial Statements - Housing Agency (25 Oct 2018)

Bobby Aylward: It is a pity that I did not know that at the time. I could go back to some of the people concerned who presumably are in the same position, not having managed to get out of the position they were in in the last year or two. I will follow it up.

Public Accounts Committee: 2017 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Chapter 10 - Funding and Oversight of Approved Housing Bodies
Vote 34 - Housing, Planning and Local Government
2017 Financial Statements - Housing Agency (25 Oct 2018)

Bobby Aylward: Sinn Féin has money than we do. It gets it from different sources. I will move on. In the case of voluntary housing, there is a system under which tenants are not allowed to buy out their houses. I was a member of a local authority for 20 years prior to coming into the House and always wondered why people could not buy out their house in the same way one could buy from the...

Public Accounts Committee: 2017 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Chapter 10 - Funding and Oversight of Approved Housing Bodies
Vote 34 - Housing, Planning and Local Government
2017 Financial Statements - Housing Agency (25 Oct 2018)

Bobby Aylward: There will be hundreds of thousands of houses held by voluntary housing bodies if this policy continues. All of the families who reside in them will never be given the opportunity to buy them. That policy is wrong and needs to be changed, whether at agency's level or the level of the Department or the Government. If a family have been living in their house for seven to ten years, they...

Public Accounts Committee: 2017 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Chapter 10 - Funding and Oversight of Approved Housing Bodies
Vote 34 - Housing, Planning and Local Government
2017 Financial Statements - Housing Agency (25 Oct 2018)

Bobby Aylward: Can I ask Mr. McCarthy the question?

Public Accounts Committee: 2017 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Chapter 10 - Funding and Oversight of Approved Housing Bodies
Vote 34 - Housing, Planning and Local Government
2017 Financial Statements - Housing Agency (25 Oct 2018)

Bobby Aylward: I ask Mr. McCarthy for his personal view on whether a family living who have been living in a house for ten or 15 years should be given an opportunity at some point in their lives to buy out their house. The rent they pay under the rent-to-buy scheme could be used to purchase more houses as social and voluntary housing. It is a shame that this option is not being taken up.

Public Accounts Committee: 2017 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Chapter 10 - Funding and Oversight of Approved Housing Bodies
Vote 34 - Housing, Planning and Local Government
2017 Financial Statements - Housing Agency (25 Oct 2018)

Bobby Aylward: Does it not make common sense?

Public Accounts Committee: 2017 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Chapter 10 - Funding and Oversight of Approved Housing Bodies
Vote 34 - Housing, Planning and Local Government
2017 Financial Statements - Housing Agency (25 Oct 2018)

Bobby Aylward: This is general information that I probably should know, but who actually owns voluntary housing? Is it the Government or the voluntary housing bodies?

Public Accounts Committee: 2017 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Chapter 10 - Funding and Oversight of Approved Housing Bodies
Vote 34 - Housing, Planning and Local Government
2017 Financial Statements - Housing Agency (25 Oct 2018)

Bobby Aylward: All of that taxpayers' money is used and they are owned by the voluntary housing bodies. Can they distribute them according to their will?

Public Accounts Committee: 2017 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Chapter 10 - Funding and Oversight of Approved Housing Bodies
Vote 34 - Housing, Planning and Local Government
2017 Financial Statements - Housing Agency (25 Oct 2018)

Bobby Aylward: They are non-profit and voluntary bodies, but they are still owned by private groups. This is taxpayers' money.

Public Accounts Committee: 2017 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Chapter 10 - Funding and Oversight of Approved Housing Bodies
Vote 34 - Housing, Planning and Local Government
2017 Financial Statements - Housing Agency (25 Oct 2018)

Bobby Aylward: I question that. I will move to Part V housing. It was a big thing during the boom and nearly took over from the building of social and affordable housing from 2000 onwards. What percentage of Part V is working? Is the system still working as well as it was? Is it starting to pick up again now that the level of building has picked up? Are we beginning to depend on it again?