Results 14,981-15,000 of 28,162 for speaker:Catherine Murphy

Public Accounts Committee: 2017 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 34 - Housing, Planning and Local Government (21 Feb 2019)

Catherine Murphy: I imagine that the colleagues of Dr. Rhodes will be able to answer our questions.

Public Accounts Committee: 2017 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 34 - Housing, Planning and Local Government (21 Feb 2019)

Catherine Murphy: I thank the witnesses for their attendance. I am sorry for the delay in getting started. I remember the debate on the voluntary code. Some of us were very enthusiastic about making it a statutory code and being much more ambitious and quicker in doing that. I understand there is a bedding-in period but I refer to the ability at the time this was debated to get European Investment Bank...

Public Accounts Committee: 2017 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 34 - Housing, Planning and Local Government (21 Feb 2019)

Catherine Murphy: Obviously, there are significant amounts of money on deposit in credit unions and pension funds. Personally, I do not have any issue with public housing or housing that comes from the public waiting list being delivered through voluntary housing bodies, approved housing bodies or others so long as there is security of tenure and the rents are regulated and affordable. Can we have more of...

Public Accounts Committee: 2017 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 34 - Housing, Planning and Local Government (21 Feb 2019)

Catherine Murphy: So there is oversight.

Public Accounts Committee: 2017 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 34 - Housing, Planning and Local Government (21 Feb 2019)

Catherine Murphy: But just not to the extent that will eventually be the case. Let us consider the asset base. Let us say there is a fairly decent asset base and 30 houses built in the 1990s that are coming towards the point where there will no longer be a mortgage on them. I have come across cases where bodies have quite a bit of money on deposit, more than they would require for a sinking fund, and...

Public Accounts Committee: 2017 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 34 - Housing, Planning and Local Government (21 Feb 2019)

Catherine Murphy: As we go down to the tier 1 organisations, that is typically what will be found.

Public Accounts Committee: 2017 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 34 - Housing, Planning and Local Government (21 Feb 2019)

Catherine Murphy: The allocations are made from the housing waiting list but there is a difference in how that happens. For example, typically, the local authority sends a list of names that can be selected from. Some organisations will do courses such as tenancy courses. One criticism of the sector is that there can be a degree of cherry-picking and that the local authority will perhaps not do the tenancy...

Public Accounts Committee: 2017 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 34 - Housing, Planning and Local Government (21 Feb 2019)

Catherine Murphy: Okay, I thank Ms Donaghy for her response. In terms of a social mix, where there is a very big development, although we do not have many obvious examples of that, as rather than hundreds of units, a big development would be perhaps 100, where does that fit in with the allocations policy? I had understood initially that when those were set up, the 25% was to allow for us to get to a point...

Public Accounts Committee: 2017 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 34 - Housing, Planning and Local Government (21 Feb 2019)

Catherine Murphy: Is it sometimes in conjunction with other components within the same development?

Public Accounts Committee: 2017 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 34 - Housing, Planning and Local Government (21 Feb 2019)

Catherine Murphy: I thank Ms Donaghy.

Public Accounts Committee: 2017 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 34 - Housing, Planning and Local Government (21 Feb 2019)

Catherine Murphy: I know the witnesses are looking at another draft of the legislation. Is there any indicative timeline the organisations are working towards? Have they been given any indicative timeline?

Public Accounts Committee: 2017 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 34 - Housing, Planning and Local Government (21 Feb 2019)

Catherine Murphy: Okay. Three approved housing bodies were deemed unsatisfactory. That is a pretty serious situation for it to be without a consequence. That is with the tier 3 organisations. Even with the current oversight, what kind of percentage are we looking at with the tier 1 and 2 organisations? Would a significant number or a small number fall into that category? I accept the committee does not...

Public Accounts Committee: 2017 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 34 - Housing, Planning and Local Government (21 Feb 2019)

Catherine Murphy: Right, I misunderstood that.

Public Accounts Committee: 2017 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 34 - Housing, Planning and Local Government (21 Feb 2019)

Catherine Murphy: Okay. Let us assume, for example, within the next year that this legislation is in place, what advance work has been done or can be done to figure out whether private money will be attracted to the approved housing bodies? Would that scale up the output in a significant way? It takes several years to get houses from the point of concept to delivery. I am sure Mr. Hannigan can tell me more...

Public Accounts Committee: 2017 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 34 - Housing, Planning and Local Government (21 Feb 2019)

Catherine Murphy: The organisation could not take up all the money that is available.

Public Accounts Committee: 2017 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 34 - Housing, Planning and Local Government (21 Feb 2019)

Catherine Murphy: Is the lack of a statutory code an impediment?

Public Accounts Committee: 2017 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 34 - Housing, Planning and Local Government (21 Feb 2019)

Catherine Murphy: Mr. Hannigan said that a statutory code would make that a little cheaper. Is he referring to interest rates or the duration of loans?

Public Accounts Committee: 2017 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 34 - Housing, Planning and Local Government (21 Feb 2019)

Catherine Murphy: Does Mr. Hannigan have any indication of what that difference might be?

Public Accounts Committee: 2017 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 34 - Housing, Planning and Local Government (21 Feb 2019)

Catherine Murphy: That might be commercially sensitive.

Public Accounts Committee: 2017 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 34 - Housing, Planning and Local Government (21 Feb 2019)

Catherine Murphy: There is a significant amount of State land that could be used. We could get to a position where we could have an affordable housing stream that has been ramped up considerably within a reasonable time.