Results 17,621-17,640 of 40,897 for speaker:Simon Coveney

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Action Plan for Housing and Homelessness: Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government (14 Sep 2016)

Simon Coveney: A total of 200 rapid build houses will be completed before the end of the year. We will have another 800-----

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Action Plan for Housing and Homelessness: Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government (14 Sep 2016)

Simon Coveney: With respect, it is not just about the Deputy's area.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Action Plan for Housing and Homelessness: Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government (14 Sep 2016)

Simon Coveney: I am answering it.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Action Plan for Housing and Homelessness: Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government (14 Sep 2016)

Simon Coveney: I am answering the Deputy's question. Before the end of next year, 1,500 rapid build units will be built. They will be in multiple locations, primarily across Dublin. Different local authorities in Dublin are building different numbers and that is the way it will work. Many people thought HAP would not work in south Dublin either but 1,200 HAP tenancies have been set up there and more...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Action Plan for Housing and Homelessness: Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government (14 Sep 2016)

Simon Coveney: -----less than half of what was offered was taken up. NAMA was certainly very critical of that when it appeared before the housing committee. In respect of Senator Coffey's point, I am very conscious that many of the foundations on which we are trying build were put in place by Senator Coffey when he was Minister of State and by the former Minister for the Environment, Community and Local...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Action Plan for Housing and Homelessness: Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government (14 Sep 2016)

Simon Coveney: I have met local authorities but I have not met Fingal County Council yet. I have met South Dublin County Council, Dublin City Council, Limerick City and County Council, Cork City Council, Kilkenny County Council and Carlow County Council and I am meeting Waterford County Council tomorrow. There are only so many days in the week.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Action Plan for Housing and Homelessness: Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government (14 Sep 2016)

Simon Coveney: The key solution lies with proper co-ordination, partnership and management across Dublin with the local authorities. Our officials are meeting with officials from all the key local authorities in Dublin on a regular basis to try to get solutions to homelessness. I suspect the Deputy knows that.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Action Plan for Housing and Homelessness: Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government (14 Sep 2016)

Simon Coveney: Sorry, what?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Action Plan for Housing and Homelessness: Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government (14 Sep 2016)

Simon Coveney: Did Senator Boyhan want to ask a question?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Action Plan for Housing and Homelessness: Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government (14 Sep 2016)

Simon Coveney: First, on the points Deputy Ó Broin raised, I will come back with the detail on some of that.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Action Plan for Housing and Homelessness: Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government (14 Sep 2016)

Simon Coveney: On mixed-tenure provision, the reality is that it will be dealt with on a case-by-case basis in terms of how we can best use the strategic asset of land banks in different circumstances. Sometimes it will be a straight sale which can raise money to buy other land, as the Deputy said, and sometimes it will be to deliver and finance significant potential numbers of social housing units. It...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Action Plan for Housing and Homelessness: Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government (14 Sep 2016)

Simon Coveney: It is about ensuring that people get homes and that they are not homeless.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Action Plan for Housing and Homelessness: Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government (14 Sep 2016)

Simon Coveney: That was the issue the Deputy raised with respect to Deputy Boyd Barrett's question. She might extend me the same courtesy.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Action Plan for Housing and Homelessness: Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government (14 Sep 2016)

Simon Coveney: We will come back to the other pillars the next time we meet. We want to get every local authority to work on a choice-based letting principle. That will mean that if people say they will take a house, the chances of their seeing that through and not refusing it are much higher.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Action Plan for Housing and Homelessness: Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government (14 Sep 2016)

Simon Coveney: With regard some of the points Deputy Boyd Barrett made about HAP, all of our HAP tenancies involve an inspection of the property to make sure it meets certain standards. The whole point of HAP is to try to reduce the vulnerability of some people who may be on rent supplement, whereby the relationship is with the landlord and the local authority rather than between landlord and tenant, to...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Action Plan for Housing and Homelessness: Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government (14 Sep 2016)

Simon Coveney: -----rent supplement. Everyone who is renting deserves the protection of the State in term of the standards that they should expect from private rental accommodation. That should apply to social tenants in the same way as to private tenants. Obviously there is a risk there, which is the reason we have an inspection system. The figure I got is that there is an inspection always within...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Action Plan for Housing and Homelessness: Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government (14 Sep 2016)

Simon Coveney: No. That is what the Deputy is talking about.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Action Plan for Housing and Homelessness: Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government (14 Sep 2016)

Simon Coveney: We want to make sure the 1,500 units that we are talking about building-----

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Action Plan for Housing and Homelessness: Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government (14 Sep 2016)

Simon Coveney: If one asks the families who have moved into the 22 units in Poppintree about their experience, I think one would get a pretty positive response from the vast majority of them. We are trying to get volume into the system to start to deal with the housing needs of many families in a more proactive way. Rapid build is just part of the solution and it will be a very small part in percentage...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Action Plan for Housing and Homelessness: Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government (14 Sep 2016)

Simon Coveney: The point here is that we are looking at the broader rental market and we will have new policy initiatives on it before the end of the year. Hopefully, we will be able to get consensus on some of those at least but we will have to wait and see.