Results 1-20 of 777 for speaker:Margaret Ritchie

Northern Ireland Assembly: Adjournment: Lurgan Area: Improvement Scheme for 19 Rural Cottages (17 Nov 2009)

Margaret Ritchie: I thank John O’Dowd for tabling this Adjournment topic, and Dolores Kelly. They have both contributed this evening. I welcome the opportunity to clarify some of the issues raised, and I will try to address all of them. I assure Members that I will study the Hansard report, and if I have left any of their questions unanswered, I will write directly to the Member concerned. I must first...

Northern Ireland Assembly: Social Development: Warm Homes Scheme: Fuel Poverty (17 Nov 2009)

Margaret Ritchie: It is still very early to undertake an evaluation of the new system or to give the Member an accurate assessment. That will be done after a year of the scheme’s implementation. At this stage, however, there has been a healthy uptake and interest in the scheme, and its purpose is to focus on those who are most in need, namely people in receipt of low income. We wanted to address need....

Northern Ireland Assembly: Social Development: Warm Homes Scheme: Fuel Poverty (17 Nov 2009)

Margaret Ritchie: I am confident that the warm homes scheme, under its new guise, continues to address fuel poverty. I am particularly conscious of a report on energy prices, which was issued this morning. I recognise that there is a problem, and any increases in energy prices should be justified. However, that is, primarily, a matter for the energy regulator and the Department of Enterprise, Trade and...

Northern Ireland Assembly: Social Development: Warm Homes Scheme: Fuel Poverty (17 Nov 2009)

Margaret Ritchie: The Department, through the two scheme managers, is undertaking work on various assessments that were carried over from Egan. It is not possible at this stage to conclude from that work and the new applications how many applicants were approved, are awaiting consideration or were refused. We hope to complete that work by the end of the month, when I will be happy to write to the Member.

Northern Ireland Assembly: Social Development: Housing Budget (17 Nov 2009)

Margaret Ritchie: As the housing budget has been decimated by the collapse in capital receipts, it is even more important to make the best use of the budget that is left. When I launched the new housing agenda in February 2008, I made it clear that officials would seek to bring forward greater levels of private finance to complement the resources already committed from the public purse. Officials are...

Northern Ireland Assembly: Social Development: Housing Budget (17 Nov 2009)

Margaret Ritchie: When I launched the new housing agenda, I made it clear that I was introducing a radical and energetic agenda for housing that had not been seen for a generation. That has included the creation of more shared future housing; the launch of our shared neighbourhood programme; bringing back into use former military housing; developing a new procurement strategy to deliver more efficiently than...

Northern Ireland Assembly: Social Development: Housing Budget (17 Nov 2009)

Margaret Ritchie: Mr McCarthy knows full well about that issue, as he has written to me and asked me questions about in the Assembly. Internal adaptations to an existing property will be done automatically. Extensions fall into a different category. I go back to the principal issue of the housing budget. Unlike other Departments, DSD’s budget is predicated on income from land sales and house sales. As a...

Northern Ireland Assembly: Social Development: Housing Budget (17 Nov 2009)

Margaret Ritchie: As the Member will appreciate, I receive many requests for prioritisation of planned maintenance schemes. I am happy to consider that area, in conjunction with the Housing Executive. I recall my visit to that estate, when, with the Member, I met some residents. I will look at that and come back to the Member. I ask him to ask the Minister of Finance and Personnel, who, I understand, is his...

Northern Ireland Assembly: Social Development: Housing Budget (17 Nov 2009)

Margaret Ritchie: Mr Robinson asked me about Monkstown during my previous Question Time, and I gave him an assurance that we will be happy to examine it. He is asking me to do what Mr Dallat asked me to do: look into my crystal ball. I am afraid that I am not in my tent today, but I can say that I need the support of everybody, including all my ministerial colleagues.

Northern Ireland Assembly: Social Development: Housing Budget (17 Nov 2009)

Margaret Ritchie: I need their support to put housing on a sound financial footing. I can rely on certain ministerial colleagues for that, and I hope that I can rely on the remainder to ensure that that happens. Some housing issues, whether relating to planned maintenance, capital improvements, grants, newbuild schemes, warm homes or supported housing, are, with health and education, the most fundamental...

Northern Ireland Assembly: Social Development: Social Housing: Rent Arrears (17 Nov 2009)

Margaret Ritchie: As the Member knows, a Public Accounts Committee report on the management of social housing rent collection and arrears was issued some weeks ago, and a detailed memorandum of reply is being prepared that will set out the considered response to the issues that were raised in the report. I must gently correct the Member: although the level of rent arrears is a significant challenge, it has...

Northern Ireland Assembly: Social Development: Social Housing: Rent Arrears (17 Nov 2009)

Margaret Ritchie: I do not accept the assertion that targets are manipulated. In the past financial year, the Northern Ireland Housing Executive collected 97% of the rent due, and that was in a recession. All Members should welcome that.

Northern Ireland Assembly: Social Development: Shared Future: Public Meetings (17 Nov 2009)

Margaret Ritchie: Working towards a shared future has been at the forefront of my agenda since I became Minister for Social Development. Our divided society deepens poverty as well as prejudice. Therefore, I have begun work in my Department to tackle that division. For example, I have taken steps to ensure that shared housing is at the heart of my newbuild social programme and other programmes within existing...

Northern Ireland Assembly: Social Development: Shared Future: Public Meetings (17 Nov 2009)

Margaret Ritchie: I am well aware of the importance of the Member’s question and the issue of naked sectarianism. People live in divided communities, in spite of the fact that 80% of the people in Northern Ireland have indicted that they want to live together rather than apart. In my Department, the shared future agenda can be best addressed through housing, urban regeneration and community development....

Northern Ireland Assembly: Social Development: Shared Future: Public Meetings (17 Nov 2009)

Margaret Ritchie: I am aware that the two issues are being addressed. I have written to Mr and Mrs McClelland with a satisfactory resolution, and I will look at the other issue and come back to the Member.

Northern Ireland Assembly: Social Development: Shared Future: Public Meetings (17 Nov 2009)

Margaret Ritchie: The document that was being prepared by the First Minister and deputy First Minister has not been brought to the Executive for consideration, debate or agreement. A few Executive meetings ago, I offered to prepare a paper on how to develop a normal and shared society. That paper would be based on expertise that has been gained through research. The deputy First Minister said that he and the...

Northern Ireland Assembly: Social Development: Local Government: Social Deprivation (17 Nov 2009)

Margaret Ritchie: I have given such an assurance already, but I will repeat it. Local government will receive the full resources that are associated with the operational delivery of neighbourhood renewal. That will happen when that function transfers from my Department, and will include the available programme and staffing resources. Tackling social deprivation is the responsibility of all Departments, not...

Northern Ireland Assembly: Social Development: Local Government: Social Deprivation (17 Nov 2009)

Margaret Ritchie: Those issues are under consideration. I accept that there is a clear need for training, because the civil servants, who will be going with the functions and the budgets, have an expertise in this area. No doubt they will be able to deploy such expertise to whatever councils they are employed in. Suffice it to say, local government is the best place for neighbourhood renewal, because it is...

Northern Ireland Assembly: Social Development: Local Government: Social Deprivation (17 Nov 2009)

Margaret Ritchie: Mr Shannon is referring to the Small Pockets of Deprivation (SPOD) programme and the Areas at Risk programme, with particular reference to Newtownards and Bowtown. Funding for the SPOD programme will continue until the end of March 2010, and funding of £640,000 has been allocated for the current financial year. An independent evaluation report of the first three years of that programme,...

Northern Ireland Assembly: Social Development: Local Government: Social Deprivation (17 Nov 2009)

Margaret Ritchie: Mr Dallat has presented a challenge to me. One of the greatest challenges to my Department in transferring functions is the uncertainty over the overall Budget. However, there is another political issue to be faced, namely the uncertainty over the legislation, which is still with the centre, and on which no decision has been made. The problem with RPA is like so many other matters: the...