Results 11,861-11,880 of 27,073 for speaker:Richard Boyd Barrett

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Appropriate Use of Public Land: Discussion (17 Oct 2018)

Richard Boyd Barrett: Do Mr. Coleman agree that, to some degree, the work of the LDA is to undo the damage done by NAMA in selling €40 billion worth of property at pretty low prices to developers who are now hoarding and speculating on vast amounts of land? Does he agree that the agency is needed to deal with the consequences of what NAMA did?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Appropriate Use of Public Land: Discussion (17 Oct 2018)

Richard Boyd Barrett: I am sure everybody will agree that 25% is a pitifully low level of delivery. We do not even know how low it is because we are continually given different estimates of what has been delivered. According to the CSO, 14,000 houses were delivered last year, which is pitiful and way below the 35,000 houses per year which according to the ESRI we now need.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Appropriate Use of Public Land: Discussion (17 Oct 2018)

Richard Boyd Barrett: I know that.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Appropriate Use of Public Land: Discussion (17 Oct 2018)

Richard Boyd Barrett: I understand its mandate which was totally misguided. Nonetheless, it is a fact that it has unloaded a vast amount of property, for the most part, at the bottom of the market, with which nothing is happening. According to Mel Reynolds, of the 114,000 houses mentioned, approximately half are local authority houses. The remainder will be provided through NAMA. There are 60,000 acres of...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Appropriate Use of Public Land: Discussion (17 Oct 2018)

Richard Boyd Barrett: Okay, but the housing crisis indicates otherwise. I will move on. I am in favour of and have argued for having a centrally planned agency, although the local authorities should be the main source of housing delivery. Co-ordinating that delivery in a strategic is the right way to go. However, I have a problem with the fact that within this plan 60% of housing will be privatised. This...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Appropriate Use of Public Land: Discussion (17 Oct 2018)

Richard Boyd Barrett: To be honest, that does not really answer my question. It is not enough for Mr. Coleman to simply assert that the agency is cognisant of the need for transparency. He has also said there are commercial sensitivities. I simply do not see how the two can marry. The answer to the direct question of whether we will know the price at which the agency will sell land to private developers is...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Appropriate Use of Public Land: Discussion (17 Oct 2018)

Richard Boyd Barrett: Under Rebuilding Ireland, the Government has identified a requirement to deliver 137,000 social housing units. If it actually delivers them, it will effectively account for all projected housing development. The ESRI maintains that there is a need for approximately 35,000 units per year. Thus, in the coming four years, to deliver on Rebuilding Ireland, everything will have to be social...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Appropriate Use of Public Land: Discussion (17 Oct 2018)

Richard Boyd Barrett: I have one last question.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Appropriate Use of Public Land: Discussion (17 Oct 2018)

Richard Boyd Barrett: That is fair enough.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Appropriate Use of Public Land: Discussion (17 Oct 2018)

Richard Boyd Barrett: Overall, the arithmetic does not work out. The other day Mr. Brendan Kenny said to us that if Dublin City Council were to build property directly on its own land, it had one port of call, namely, the Department. That is where the council must obtain approval, money and so on. However, with all of these mixed tenure arrangements, essentially the agency will have three ports of call. Am I...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Appropriate Use of Public Land: Discussion (17 Oct 2018)

Richard Boyd Barrett: Deputy Barry has prompted one question because people need to understand the seriousness of the situation in Dún Laoghaire. To my knowledge, from my clinic in Dún Laoghaire, there are people who have been on the housing list for up to 19 years. I would be interested to know if Ms Keenan has figures on the average waiting time. In any event, it is shockingly long. Does Ms Keenan...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Appropriate Use of Public Land: Discussion (17 Oct 2018)

Richard Boyd Barrett: I thank the Chairman for the steer but I am heading towards that because the appropriate use of public land depends considerably on what the needs are. It is, therefore, very relevant to the issue of-----

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Appropriate Use of Public Land: Discussion (17 Oct 2018)

Richard Boyd Barrett: Yes, and they might have it but if not, they can pass them on to me. They are still relevant questions. To meet that demand which, in total, depending on how the figure is calculated, will be approximately 5,000 households in real terms over the next few years, and to reduce those waiting lists, we would have to have a considerably higher level of delivery than we have currently. I do not...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Appropriate Use of Public Land: Discussion (17 Oct 2018)

Richard Boyd Barrett: May I ask a brief supplementary question?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Appropriate Use of Public Land: Discussion (17 Oct 2018)

Richard Boyd Barrett: I know there were a lot of questions, so I am not criticising witnesses for not giving an answer. However it is worth getting an answer to dramatise the problem we are facing with waiting times in Dún Laoghaire, because they are shocking. A wait of eight years is shocking. That relates to the question about the plans for direct public housing provision by the local authority itself....

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Appropriate Use of Public Land: Discussion (17 Oct 2018)

Richard Boyd Barrett: I thank the Chairman for answering my questions.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Appropriate Use of Public Land: Discussion (17 Oct 2018)

Richard Boyd Barrett: The Chairman always answers my questions.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Appropriate Use of Public Land: Discussion (17 Oct 2018)

Richard Boyd Barrett: What is Ms Keenan discussing with the NDFA? She and I can sit down and have a discussion now. It takes an hour or two. We have our discussion and then move on. What is the sticking point with the NDFA?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Appropriate Use of Public Land: Discussion (17 Oct 2018)

Richard Boyd Barrett: Yes, but it has to be turning on the question of affordability and how one pays for affordability given the market prices. Ms Keenan is saying we have go to PPPs. If we do not like it, what does that mean? What does that consideration involve? If it were just about building the houses, it would just be a matter of our going to the Department to outline our scheme and ask for the money for...

Written Answers — Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport: Marine Accidents (17 Oct 2018)

Richard Boyd Barrett: 204. To ask the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport the way in which a person (details supplied) who is a survivor of the MV Kilkenny collision in Dublin Bay in 1991 could get a copy of their ticket and high speed rescue certificate. [42678/18]