Results 6,141-6,160 of 27,073 for speaker:Richard Boyd Barrett

Planning and Development (Amendment) (Large-scale Residential Development) Bill 2021: Report and Final Stages (8 Dec 2021)

Richard Boyd Barrett: It is a bit further on. Maybe I am missing something. It is amendment No. 10. Deputy Pringle's is more detailed. I am not saying mine is better. I am trying to figure out the difference, what we are talking about here and what a structured pre-planning consultation with stakeholders, community groups and resident groups would look like. From my experience of listening to people talk,...

Planning and Development (Amendment) (Large-scale Residential Development) Bill 2021: Report and Final Stages (8 Dec 2021)

Richard Boyd Barrett: We have a similar amendment but we support Deputy Pringle's amendment. I am surprised they are not grouped. Deputy Pringle's is a bit more fleshed out. It relates to the earlier discussion about the non-residential space in these large-scale developments. The point about these developments is that they are large scale and they have big impacts on towns, communities and populations in a...

Planning and Development (Amendment) (Large-scale Residential Development) Bill 2021: Report and Final Stages (8 Dec 2021)

Richard Boyd Barrett: I move amendment No. 3: In page 4, line 25, after “development” to insert the following: “with regard to the LRD floor space not used for the purposes of housing,a public consultation shall take place with individuals and community groups which the planning authority shall have due regard to in determinations of the granting of permissions for such floor...

Planning and Development (Amendment) (Large-scale Residential Development) Bill 2021: Report and Final Stages (8 Dec 2021)

Richard Boyd Barrett: We could do with a replacement for the HSE as well.

Planning and Development (Amendment) (Large-scale Residential Development) Bill 2021: Report and Final Stages (8 Dec 2021)

Richard Boyd Barrett: I move amendment No. 2: In page 4, lines 23 and 24, to delete “, or such other percentage as may be prescribed,”. Amendments Nos. 2 and 3 concern large-scale residential developments, LRDs. The Bill is the replacement for the strategic housing development, SHD, legislation and requires that not less than 70% of any large-scale development should be either homes or student...

Residential Tenancies (Amendment) (No. 2) Bill 2021 [Seanad]: Committee and Remaining Stages (8 Dec 2021)

Richard Boyd Barrett: Every single day that I walk into my constituency office in Dún Laoghaire, staring me straight in the face, right across the road is living proof of the failure of the Government and successive Governments to deal with the ruthless, vicious landlords to whom Deputy O'Dowd just referred, and to protect tenants from what they are allowed to do under law by successive Governments. That is...

Residential Tenancies (Amendment) (No. 2) Bill 2021 [Seanad]: Committee and Remaining Stages (8 Dec 2021)

Richard Boyd Barrett: I have a simple question for the Minister of State. Does he think that average rents in Dublin of €2,000 a month are acceptable? Does the Government think it is tenable to have average monthly rents of €2,000 or that areas such as mine have average monthly rents of €2,200? Does the Minister of State think that when the average industrial wage is about €35,000 it...

Health and Criminal Justice (Covid-19) (Amendment) (No. 2) Bill 2021: Committee and Remaining Stages (8 Dec 2021)

Richard Boyd Barrett: I am sorry, as I am slightly late to the debate. I support Deputy Cullinane's amendment. We are not, as Deputy Bríd Smith indicated in the Second Stage debate, supportive of this legislation. That is not in any because we are reluctant or reticent about protecting public health. We think it is critical to protect public health. From the beginning, we have been 150% in favour of...

Health and Criminal Justice (Covid-19) (Amendment) (No. 2) Bill 2021: Committee and Remaining Stages (8 Dec 2021)

Richard Boyd Barrett: Yes, and the amendment is about the need to scrutinise decisions and powers that the Minister wants to give himself in this Bill. Is that okay?

Health and Criminal Justice (Covid-19) (Amendment) (No. 2) Bill 2021: Committee and Remaining Stages (8 Dec 2021)

Richard Boyd Barrett: It does, because I am concerned about the lack of a clear rationale for some of the powers that the Minister wishes to have. I want to explain that we need a rationale for a policy and a strategy. It is not clear at this point what the rationale is because at a particular point in the evolution of this pandemic, everybody believed that there was a possibility that if we got to a certain...

Health and Criminal Justice (Covid-19) (Amendment) (No. 2) Bill 2021: Committee and Remaining Stages (8 Dec 2021)

Richard Boyd Barrett: Because we do not give draconian powers to the Minister with a lack of accountability to this House unless we know where the strategy is heading.

Health and Criminal Justice (Covid-19) (Amendment) (No. 2) Bill 2021: Committee and Remaining Stages (8 Dec 2021)

Richard Boyd Barrett: In particular when the Government is not giving clear answers. What is consistent in our approach to this is that when we were campaigning for elimination as a strategy, prior to there being mass vaccination, the whole point was to reduce the likelihood of long protracted periods of very harsh restrictions and rolling lockdowns that went on for long periods precisely because we saw it as a...

Health and Criminal Justice (Covid-19) (Amendment) (No. 2) Bill 2021: Committee and Remaining Stages (8 Dec 2021)

Richard Boyd Barrett: I will do so clearly. I do not believe in giving wide-ranging powers to the Minister without accountability to this House unless he can give us and the wider public an evidence-based argument that is convincing about what exactly the purpose of all of this is and how it is part of an integrated strategy to cope with Covid-19. That is distinctly lacking. What we end up with then is a...

Ceisteanna - Questions: Departmental Functions (8 Dec 2021)

Richard Boyd Barrett: It is not just schools.

Ceisteanna - Questions: Departmental Functions (8 Dec 2021)

Richard Boyd Barrett: 15. To ask the Taoiseach if he will report on the work of the social dialogue co-ordination unit of his Department. [60207/21]

Ceisteanna - Questions: Departmental Functions (8 Dec 2021)

Richard Boyd Barrett: I remain baffled as to the hesitation, reluctance and inaction that the Taoiseach is demonstrating when it comes to the issue of ventilation, air quality and air filtration. He said earlier today that he would do anything to protect life and limb, yet we know that providing minimum standards in terms of air quality and systems that can purify the air could potentially have a dramatic effect...

Ceisteanna - Questions: Departmental Functions (8 Dec 2021)

Richard Boyd Barrett: 9. To ask the Taoiseach if he will report on the work of the public service, justice and police reform division of his Department [60203/21]

Ceisteanna - Questions: Departmental Functions (8 Dec 2021)

Richard Boyd Barrett: People looking to get appointments with the Irish Naturalisation and Immigration Service, INIS, on immigration matters are unable to get any. I am inundated with complaints about this matter. I submitted parliamentary questions on it, through which I was informed that the INIS was registering 1,000 customers per week, implying that there was no problem, but I have had repeated confirmations...

Ceisteanna - Questions: Departmental Functions (8 Dec 2021)

Richard Boyd Barrett: Yes. It is a serious and widespread problem. I see that other Deputies are nodding their heads. This issue needs to be addressed. We are not getting the truth of the matter when we submit questions to the INIS and the Department of Justice. Will the Taoiseach address this matter? I do not know whether he can tell us anything now but I urge him to address it.

Ceisteanna - Questions: Brexit Issues (8 Dec 2021)

Richard Boyd Barrett: I want to follow up on the question Deputy Connolly asked earlier. As the Taoiseach knows, Deputy Connolly and I are very strongly in favour of the vaccination programme. We think people should get their boosters and we agree about the injunction to protect life and limb. However, there are human rights considerations for the small number of people who cannot be vaccinated for health...