Results 1,301-1,320 of 1,995 for speaker:Joe Flaherty

Written Answers — Department of Justice and Equality: Judicial Appointments (10 May 2022)

Joe Flaherty: 651. To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Justice and Equality when the new Judiciary Board will be appointed to vet new applications by solicitors and barristers for appointment to the position of judges of all courts. [23244/22]

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Housing Provision for Older People: Discussion (10 May 2022)

Joe Flaherty: I thank all of the speakers for coming in. It is a very interesting debate and it is timely and important we have it here. I will preface my contribution by saying I started to read Richard Osman's The Man Who Died Twiceat the weekend. For those who do not know, the protagonists live in a retirement village. In that book, there is an awful lot of wine and an awful lot of pizza, so I look...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Housing Provision for Older People: Discussion (10 May 2022)

Joe Flaherty: There is probably a ready solution already, with the grant scheme for the elderly or those with disabilities. People can currently only access that grant if they are living in the house. If we made a slight change so that people could access the grant if they are in a nursing home, provided they rent out the property, that would be a ready solution. That grant would be up to...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Housing Provision for Older People: Discussion (10 May 2022)

Joe Flaherty: Will the Vice Chair indulge me for one minute?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Housing Provision for Older People: Discussion (10 May 2022)

Joe Flaherty: Are financial contributions limited to certain local authorities or is it national?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Housing Provision for Older People: Discussion (10 May 2022)

Joe Flaherty: It is not required. Can any local authority come to the Department with a proposal?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Housing Provision for Older People: Discussion (10 May 2022)

Joe Flaherty: I thank all the speakers for attending. As I said to the departmental representatives, this discussion is very timely. If anything, legislators are behind the ball in respect of the work officials have done heretofore and that is being done by the delegates. It is not said enough that there is a crisis concerning housing for the elderly. That is probably because we do not have many 70-...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Housing Provision for Older People: Discussion (10 May 2022)

Joe Flaherty: There is a sea change among older people in that they are now finding it too expensive to keep larger houses. They want to rightsize but it is a question of how we go about it. This brings me on to the Sue Ryder Foundation, which is doing incredible work. I misheard Mr. Reid when he was giving his opening statement in that I thought he said "archery or prayer room". I thought that was...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Housing Provision for Older People: Discussion (10 May 2022)

Joe Flaherty: Good. The model that the Sue Ryder Foundation is offering is particularly interesting. We are unfortunate in many parts of the country because we are not familiar with the work it is doing. Will Mr. Reid expand on the private list he referred to? How does it work? Is the foundation unique in offering a service to both the private community and local authorities? Could Mr. Reid expand on...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Housing Provision for Older People: Discussion (10 May 2022)

Joe Flaherty: It does, yes. It relates to the point I was making to Mr. Moynihan initially on the source of information. Mr. Reid obviously gleaned the information on the number living alone from the CSO. We need detailed work to drill into the statistics, reach out to people and determine what exactly they want to do. The Department officials, when they were before us earlier, told us this is part of...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Housing Provision for Older People: Discussion (10 May 2022)

Joe Flaherty: As Deputy McAuliffe had to go to speak in the Chamber, our guests will have to contend with my dulcet Longford tones for the final few minutes.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Housing Provision for Older People: Discussion (10 May 2022)

Joe Flaherty: I thank Deputy Ó Broin. Aon rud eile from Deputy Cian O'Callaghan? No. I will pick up on one point. The Department officials said that they are undertaking a review of the grants for the elderly and disabled. I am taking a leap of faith and assuming that neither Age Action nor any of the groups have been invited to make a submission or observations for that review.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Housing Provision for Older People: Discussion (10 May 2022)

Joe Flaherty: The Department officials are listening in so hopefully they will reach out. It would be important to get their input into something like that. Access to bridging loans for people to right-size was mentioned. That is a problem, and it is hard to pinpoint it. One option is the local authority housing loan, which could be tweaked to enable people to downsize if they want to do so. Is that...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Housing Provision for Older People: Discussion (10 May 2022)

Joe Flaherty: I thank all the witnesses for coming in. This has been an informative meeting. We need to listen to the witnesses more. They are doing valuable work. Hopefully the Department will invite them to feed into that review, particularly with regard to bridging finance. The Department has an opportunity there and we are being too rigid in the implementation of the local authority loans.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Solar Energy and the Agricultural Industry: Discussion (4 May 2022)

Joe Flaherty: I thank all the speakers for coming in. It is like a lot of things in energy at the moment and we never start talking about the money so we will talk hypothetically. I have a 50 acre farm and I can connect to the grid and everything else. What is my return?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Solar Energy and the Agricultural Industry: Discussion (4 May 2022)

Joe Flaherty: Can we speak generally because that is what people want to know. The witnesses have given ambitious targets and said that we want to go to 6 GW but we need to start getting the message out there, even if it is in broad strokes, because it is a huge leap of faith for a farmer. The witnesses paint a rosy picture but it is a huge leap of faith for a farmer to make such a big transition. What...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Solar Energy and the Agricultural Industry: Discussion (4 May 2022)

Joe Flaherty: Let us say in the midlands; in the capital.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Solar Energy and the Agricultural Industry: Discussion (4 May 2022)

Joe Flaherty: Is that per annum?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Solar Energy and the Agricultural Industry: Discussion (4 May 2022)

Joe Flaherty: Broadly speaking, for my 50 acres I would get €50,000 per year.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Solar Energy and the Agricultural Industry: Discussion (4 May 2022)

Joe Flaherty: One will still have the benefits of doing that farming. I know Lightsource bp is representing two different companies but is that the typical return that could be expected across the industry?