Results 1,341-1,360 of 4,773 for speaker:Paudie Coffey

Seanad: Urban Regeneration and Housing Bill 2015: Committee and Remaining Stages (17 Jul 2015)

Paudie Coffey: We will be opposing this amendment. The Government amendment means that all residential or regeneration land, regardless of ownership, public or private, will be subject to the levy if it meets the criteria for a vacant site as provided for in section 5 of the Bill. This will ensure that all owners of vacant sites will be treated equally. For example, local authorities will have the same...

Seanad: Urban Regeneration and Housing Bill 2015: Committee and Remaining Stages (17 Jul 2015)

Paudie Coffey: The Senator has made a fair point on funding. In recent years we did not have the capital funding to build the level of housing we wanted to build. Thankfully over the past year, the Government has managed to turn around the economy so that we can again make provision to see local authorities directly building houses again. The Government has committed almost €4 billion up to 2020,...

Seanad: Urban Regeneration and Housing Bill 2015: Committee and Remaining Stages (17 Jul 2015)

Paudie Coffey: I oppose amendments Nos. 2 and 4. Amendment No. 2 seeks to remove the requirement for a vacant site to be located on residential land if the site is situated in an area where there is a need for housing. I oppose the amendment, as I did in the Dáil last week, because it would weaken the criteria to be used by a planning authority when determining whether a site is a vacant site in the...

Seanad: Urban Regeneration and Housing Bill 2015: Committee and Remaining Stages (17 Jul 2015)

Paudie Coffey: I am happy to outline and clarify the matter for the Senator. It concerns the property rights of citizens and related issues. We must follow due process in how we apply a levy. Citizens must be given appropriate time and processes to respond to proposed designations. There has been extensive engagement between officials from my Department and the Office of the Attorney General in...

Seanad: Urban Regeneration and Housing Bill 2015: Committee and Remaining Stages (17 Jul 2015)

Paudie Coffey: I will first address some of the points the Senator rightly makes about the unsustainable development we have seen in the past. Much of that has to do with the zoning decisions that were made, causing urban sprawl and development in areas where there was no demand. It contributed to a property bubble that was never going to last. That is why we in Government have revised how sustainable...

Seanad: Urban Regeneration and Housing Bill 2015: Committee and Remaining Stages (17 Jul 2015)

Paudie Coffey: We oppose amendment No. 9. This amendment, which was also brought forward on Report Stage in the Dáil, seeks to amend the provisions in section 14 of the Bill which provides the criteria by which the planning authority or the tribunal may deem that a vacant site has a zero market value. The amendment proposes to delete the following criterion: "the site is situated on contaminated...

Seanad: Urban Regeneration and Housing Bill 2015: Committee and Remaining Stages (17 Jul 2015)

Paudie Coffey: I thank Senator Cullinane for raising this interesting point of debate. As the Senator knows there are various reasons and legacy issues associated with many contaminated lands. They might have been brownfield sites from industrial or manufacturing plants or just contaminated land. To reassure the Senator, other environmental legislation is already available through the powers of bodies...

Seanad: Urban Regeneration and Housing Bill 2015: Committee and Remaining Stages (17 Jul 2015)

Paudie Coffey: I oppose amendment No. 14, which seeks to amend section 17. The proposed amendment would set the levy at zero for the year of ownership change only. The overall purpose of the vacant site levy, as we have said is to incentivise the development of the suitable vacant sites in central urban areas. Section 17 provides an incentive for landowners and purchasers of vacant sites that where the...

Seanad: Urban Regeneration and Housing Bill 2015: Committee and Remaining Stages (17 Jul 2015)

Paudie Coffey: Sections 20 and 22 provide that it is an offence to provide false or misleading information, for example in a submission to a planning authority and to forge or alter documents, or a certificate of discharge. Committing such an offence can lead to a class A fine or imprisonment, or both. Amendment No. 16 seeks to insert a new subsection to section 20, requiring that any fine resulting from...

Seanad: Urban Regeneration and Housing Bill 2015: Committee and Remaining Stages (17 Jul 2015)

Paudie Coffey: Section 23 of the Bill outlines how the proceeds of the vacant site levy are to be used by the planning authority. It essentially ring-fences the proceeds to be solely used for "the provision of housing on residential land" or for "the development and renewal of regeneration land". The legislation states that the proceeds "shall" be used in this way. The proposed amendment would insert a...

Seanad: Urban Regeneration and Housing Bill 2015: Committee and Remaining Stages (17 Jul 2015)

Paudie Coffey: I am opposing this amendment. Section 25(3) of the Bill already provides that "every regulation or order made under this Part shall be laid before each House of the Oireachtas as soon as may be after it is made and, if a resolution annulling the regulation or order is passed by either such House within the next 21 days on which that House has sat after the regulation or order is laid before...

Seanad: Urban Regeneration and Housing Bill 2015: Committee and Remaining Stages (17 Jul 2015)

Paudie Coffey: The Construction 2020 strategy makes it clear that the viability and affordability of housing is an issue in this country. The provisions in this section of the Bill would permit reductions in development charges on existing planning permissions that have yet to be activated. This section also provides that the new lower development contribution scheme shall apply to any unsold housing...

Seanad: Urban Regeneration and Housing Bill 2015: Committee and Remaining Stages (17 Jul 2015)

Paudie Coffey: I wish to make it clear that housing is a priority for this Government. It is one of the most challenging issues facing society at the moment but it cannot be resolved overnight. We have inherited a position where we have come through the worst economic crash that this country has ever experienced. The whole construction sector has been devastated and wiped out. When one brings all those...

Seanad: Urban Regeneration and Housing Bill 2015: Committee and Remaining Stages (17 Jul 2015)

Paudie Coffey: The Senator has made broad ranging points in terms of the wider housing debate. I agree with him on some of them but disagree with him on many others. We are coming from slightly different perspectives and yet we are still dealing with the same problem and issues. It is reasonable in any society for people to have the expectation of owning their own homes. If people have that legitimate...

Seanad: Urban Regeneration and Housing Bill 2015: Committee and Remaining Stages (17 Jul 2015)

Paudie Coffey: I appreciate the point the Senator makes. It probably is a matter for a wider debate. My Department, the Minister, Deputy Kelly, and I have regular engagements with the approved housing body associations. We have a monthly social housing strategy oversight meeting when we bring all the stakeholders together, including those bodies, the local authorities, Department officials and the...

Seanad: Urban Regeneration and Housing Bill 2015: Committee and Remaining Stages (17 Jul 2015)

Paudie Coffey: Senator Barrett raises some pertinent points. I thank him for raising them because they are part of the wider housing debate in terms of affordability and the whole economic feasibility of housing in this country. We have to take into account everything I said earlier, including land costs, infrastructural costs and the need to deliver vital public infrastructure. On top of that, we have...

Topical Issue Debate: Planning Issues (16 Jul 2015)

Paudie Coffey: I thank the Deputy for raising this issue and giving me the opportunity to outline the position regarding the town centre development in Naas. The management of issues in regard to town centres is a matter for the relevant local authority. From inquiries made with Kildare County Council in this case, I am informed that its involvement in the Naas town centre development relates to the...

Topical Issue Debate: Planning Issues (16 Jul 2015)

Paudie Coffey: The Government is introducing the Urban Regeneration and Housing Bill which is designed specifically to encourage and stimulate the output of housing supply in our towns and cities. This is logical because existing public services are in place and we need to utilise them to the best of our ability. There are also provisions in the Bill for urban regeneration. The vacant site levy is a new...

Other Questions: Building Regulations (16 Jul 2015)

Paudie Coffey: The current indications are that to meet rising demand and address recent under-supply, the level of house building in Dublin needs to at least double from the 3,000 or so new homes that were built in 2014. Consequently, the Minister and I wrote to the chief executives of each of the four Dublin local authorities regarding the preparation and finalisation of the new development plans for...

Other Questions: Building Regulations (16 Jul 2015)

Paudie Coffey: I understand where the Deputy is coming from and I want to reassure her that this is not about reducing standards. We already have minimum standards in this country and we comply with EU requirements. This is about ensuring we have development that is sustainable and affordable and that the construction of housing from the concept to design to planning to construction is affordable....