Results 20,661-20,680 of 27,080 for speaker:Richard Boyd Barrett

Ceisteanna - Questions (Resumed) - Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Educational Reform (23 Nov 2021)

Richard Boyd Barrett: 57. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills if she will give a full report on the recent discussions her Department has been having on reform of the leaving certificate; the timeline for changes to same; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [57644/21]

Ceisteanna - Questions (Resumed) - Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Educational Reform (23 Nov 2021)

Richard Boyd Barrett: It is our view the leaving certificate should go because it has outlived its usefulness. It is a gatekeeping and streaming exercise which perpetuates inequality and limits or streams access to third level education. The Minister might not agree with all of that but she has committed to some sort of review of the leaving certificate. I want to know the status of that review because,...

Ceisteanna - Questions (Resumed) - Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Educational Reform (23 Nov 2021)

Richard Boyd Barrett: A lecturer in UCD told me that much of the modern examination system originated with efforts to populate the civil service in British-controlled colonial China. I do not know if it is true, but it is a structure that is about enforcing certain norms and notions of hierarchy. That is still true of the leaving certificate. There are some dinosaurs in the North or in Britain who might hark...

Ceisteanna - Questions (Resumed) - Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Educational Reform (23 Nov 2021)

Richard Boyd Barrett: Could the Minister be more specific about when the report will be published and when this is going to happen? This cannot be long-fingered. As she said, Covid has highlighted the inadequacies that were there, but it has shone a sharp light on the problems and the unfairness of the leaving certificate. It is unfair to put large numbers of students through the incredible and unnecessary...

Education (Health, Relationships and Sex Education) Bill 2021: Second Stage [Private Members] (24 Nov 2021)

Richard Boyd Barrett: How many minutes do we have?

Education (Health, Relationships and Sex Education) Bill 2021: Second Stage [Private Members] (24 Nov 2021)

Richard Boyd Barrett: We will take four each.

Education (Health, Relationships and Sex Education) Bill 2021: Second Stage [Private Members] (24 Nov 2021)

Richard Boyd Barrett: We thought we had more. I thank the Social Democrats for bringing forward this Bill on this incredibly important subject. I also commend the former Deputy, Ruth Coppinger, who brought forward a Bill with similar objectives in 2018, the Provision of Objective Sex Education Bill 2018, which tackled the issue in a slightly different way but had the same objectives. That Bill was passed by...

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (24 Nov 2021)

Richard Boyd Barrett: I have lost count of how many times I have raised the issue of reviewing the income thresholds for eligibility for social housing over the last four or five years. Whether it is the last Government or this Government, the stock response is that “it is under review” or “the review will be completed shortly”, and we have been told that for four or five years now....

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (24 Nov 2021)

Richard Boyd Barrett: First, will the Taoiseach give me a commitment that homeless families will not be evicted from homeless accommodation because they get a job and try to earn a bit of extra income? Will he give me that commitment now and issue that instruction to local authorities? Second, can I just point out that if they had been housed as they should be, or even got a HAP tenancy, they would not be...

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (24 Nov 2021)

Richard Boyd Barrett: Why is there not a-----

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (24 Nov 2021)

Richard Boyd Barrett: They will not be evicted from homeless accommodation.

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (24 Nov 2021)

Richard Boyd Barrett: The Taoiseach should make a commitment on that.

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (24 Nov 2021)

Richard Boyd Barrett: These people would not be able to afford those houses.

Ceisteanna ar Reachtaíocht a Gealladh - Questions on Promised Legislation (24 Nov 2021)

Richard Boyd Barrett: The protests outside by hauliers are just the latest manifestation of the huge problems large numbers of working people, people on lower incomes, hauliers, taxi drivers and many others are having with the cost of living and the cost of energy and fuel. The Taoiseach asked that we give some suggestions. We have given suggestions. Under section 61 of the Consumer Protection Act 2007, the...

Ceisteanna - Questions: Climate Change Negotiations (24 Nov 2021)

Richard Boyd Barrett: The threatened sale of the Killegar forest in Enniskerry, which I highlighted and on which I am glad to say Coillte backed off, and the one raised by Deputy Cairns that the Taoiseach was talking about earlier on, indicate a fundamental problem with the mandate of Coillte, namely, that it is operating to commercial imperatives, rather than as a guardian of the forest estate and as the entity...

Ceisteanna - Questions: Cabinet Committees (24 Nov 2021)

Richard Boyd Barrett: 8. To ask the Taoiseach when the Cabinet committee on health will next meet. [57323/21]

Ceisteanna - Questions: Cabinet Committees (24 Nov 2021)

Richard Boyd Barrett: Yesterday, I said to the Taoiseach that people cannot get a PCR test in Dublin for love nor money. Now that fact has been confirmed, although people in the Government's front bench were shaking their heads when I said that. Something else that the Taoiseach might consider is that, if people cannot get a test for a couple of days, they can understandably feel pressure to get a private test,...

Ceisteanna - Questions: Departmental Programmes (24 Nov 2021)

Richard Boyd Barrett: 13. To ask the Taoiseach the key policy achievements of his Department since June 2020. [57324/21]

Ceisteanna - Questions: Departmental Programmes (24 Nov 2021)

Richard Boyd Barrett: Over the past number of weeks, many taxi drivers were pushed off the pandemic unemployment payment, PUP. In fact, many of them could have stayed on it but voluntarily signed off because their sector was recovering. Now the sector has gone over a cliff because of the night-time curfew, the public health advice for people to reduce social contacts and the work from home provisions. Taxi...

Ceisteanna - Questions: Departmental Programmes (24 Nov 2021)

Richard Boyd Barrett: Some were.