Results 181-200 of 7,404 for speaker:Mick Wallace

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Urban Regeneration and Housing (Amendment) Bill 2018: Discussion (28 Mar 2019)

Mick Wallace: I thank the Chair and the clerk to the committee for allocating time for detailed scrutiny of the Urban Regeneration and Housing (Amendment) Bill 2018. The Bill was introduced on First Stage in June 2018 and passed Second Stage in July 2018 where it was supported by all Opposition parties and Independents. The Government did not oppose it at that time. I also thank both Professor Drudy...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Urban Regeneration and Housing (Amendment) Bill 2018: Discussion (28 Mar 2019)

Mick Wallace: When I received planning permission, I would not have had the working drawings made because I was afraid I would not receive planning permission because changes would have had to be made. Collaboration in advance of seeking planning permission would be a good way of avoiding this issue, but it is not perfect. With my builder’s hat on, insisting on all of the working drawings being...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Urban Regeneration and Housing (Amendment) Bill 2018: Discussion (28 Mar 2019)

Mick Wallace: If a developer gets planning permission and just wants to flip the site, he or she has a grace period before the levy is payable. If the developer waits for 11 months and then flips the site, does the buyer also get 12 months' grace? Do they keep flipping the site? A good, healthy stamp duty comes into play there. In that context, I paid €500,000 in stamp duty on the Dominick...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Urban Regeneration and Housing (Amendment) Bill 2018: Discussion (28 Mar 2019)

Mick Wallace: The Senator's first point on the homeless figures that were published this morning is very relevant. The fact that land is too dear in Ireland leads to expensive housing. Expensive housing leads to evictions as people cannot make their repayments because the initial price was beyond their means. When they are evicted, they become homeless. Rents are too high because property prices are...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Urban Regeneration and Housing (Amendment) Bill 2018: Discussion (28 Mar 2019)

Mick Wallace: On the collection of the levy, Mr. Oonan has just pointed out to me that the fact that we are removing three of the four appeals will make it much easier to collect. At present, section 18 of the 2015 Act allows the site owner to appeal the demand of payment of the levy, and this is after he or she may already have appealed it. It is nuts. The Bill will make it much easier for the local...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Urban Regeneration and Housing (Amendment) Bill 2018: Discussion (28 Mar 2019)

Mick Wallace: Removing that does not create any difficulty for the Bill. The reason we came up with this idea was that it would be more attractive to the Government, which does not want to put people who own land in a possible financial difficulty. It was actually a sweetener. Removing it from the Bill is not a problem for us because the intention of the Bill is not just to get people to build on land,...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Urban Regeneration and Housing (Amendment) Bill 2018: Discussion (28 Mar 2019)

Mick Wallace: A point that needs to be made is that it is not all about the private sector. The truth is we cannot make the private sector build, and rightly so. It should not be compelled. People in the private sector will build when they feel like it. This is why there is a responsibility on the State to provide housing. We cannot depend on an entity such as the private construction sector to supply...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Urban Regeneration and Housing (Amendment) Bill 2018: Discussion (28 Mar 2019)

Mick Wallace: I will let in Mr. Reynolds to deal with some of the-----

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Urban Regeneration and Housing (Amendment) Bill 2018: Discussion (28 Mar 2019)

Mick Wallace: Deputy Boyd Barrett has made two main points. He states if we apply a 25% levy, people will state they have made enough money out of the land and will flip it. Somebody will hold it and somebody will pay 25%. On the point that people will take the 60% offer we have included in the Bill and that provided the purchaser and local authority can agree they can do a deal, I can tell Deputy Boyd...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Urban Regeneration and Housing (Amendment) Bill 2018: Discussion (28 Mar 2019)

Mick Wallace: My defence on this is that I would argue the vast majority of the land we are speaking about that is banked was not bought at today's market values. For example, Hines is sitting on units in Cherrywood that are valued at more than €120,000 but it paid only €27,000 for them. The Deputy has stated people can only build unaffordable homes on those sites because they cost so much....

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Urban Regeneration and Housing (Amendment) Bill 2018: Discussion (28 Mar 2019)

Mick Wallace: The guy who was banking the land and from whom I bought it, however, got it for a fraction of what I paid him. The likes of Hines, Cairn and so on have become the new land bankers. The REIT boys bought cheap-----

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Urban Regeneration and Housing (Amendment) Bill 2018: Discussion (28 Mar 2019)

Mick Wallace: Okay. There are a couple of fellows I really wanted to throw under the bus but I have refrained.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Urban Regeneration and Housing (Amendment) Bill 2018: Discussion (28 Mar 2019)

Mick Wallace: What?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Urban Regeneration and Housing (Amendment) Bill 2018: Discussion (28 Mar 2019)

Mick Wallace: Sorry.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Urban Regeneration and Housing (Amendment) Bill 2018: Discussion (28 Mar 2019)

Mick Wallace: Right. Perhaps Mr. Reynolds will expand on it.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Urban Regeneration and Housing (Amendment) Bill 2018: Discussion (28 Mar 2019)

Mick Wallace: In reply to Deputy Boyd Barrett's question, we are not looking at others. There is a reason why most of Europe does not have our housing problems. Most of Europe does not have such a dysfunctional manner of supplying housing and we should look at those countries more closely to see what they are at. Land prices will drop dramatically if this legislation is passed. I guarantee they will...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Urban Regeneration and Housing (Amendment) Bill 2018: Discussion (28 Mar 2019)

Mick Wallace: There are no more Cherrywoods in this town.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Urban Regeneration and Housing (Amendment) Bill 2018: Discussion (28 Mar 2019)

Mick Wallace: Check the record. I said "in this town".

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Urban Regeneration and Housing (Amendment) Bill 2018: Discussion (28 Mar 2019)

Mick Wallace: From the day we bought it to the time we were digging the ground, it was close to two years, as always. Then it took approximately two years to build.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Urban Regeneration and Housing (Amendment) Bill 2018: Discussion (28 Mar 2019)

Mick Wallace: It is much quicker to get started on housing than apartments. Housing is very much like Lego. It is far simpler. Apartments present more of a civil engineering challenge than housing. A builder can buy a site for housing, get it designed, get permission and start it in a little over a year or 15 months. Perhaps Mr. Reynolds would disagree.