Results 20,841-20,860 of 27,080 for speaker:Richard Boyd Barrett

Finance Bill 2021: Report Stage (Resumed) and Final Stage (2 Dec 2021)

Richard Boyd Barrett: There was international questioning. We were part of it.

Finance Bill 2021: Report Stage (Resumed) and Final Stage (2 Dec 2021)

Richard Boyd Barrett: I would not claim credit for major international changes in corporate tax. However, until we arrived in the Dáil, nobody was willing to question these things. I speak no word of a lie when I say I was on the finance committee and we asked for Google, Facebook and Apple to come in to the committee to explain their tax affairs and effective tax rate. Not only did the committee vote...

Finance Bill 2021: Report Stage (Resumed) and Final Stage (2 Dec 2021)

Richard Boyd Barrett: Amendment No. 40 relates to the tax treatment of institutional investors and corporate landlords and their impact on the housing sector, affordability and rents. I did not hear all of Deputy Lahart's contribution but the thrust of it seemed to suggest that there was a time when we needed these investors and that they brought some beneficial impact to the housing sector but that maybe we need...

Finance Bill 2021: Report Stage (Resumed) and Final Stage (2 Dec 2021)

Richard Boyd Barrett: Where would we get the money if we did not have these investors to build the houses we need? Credit unions have said repeatedly they have the money, which are savings as well, but in a not-for-profit institution, where they have the interests of our communities and the social objective of housing people at heart. That is one source of money. I refer to what we discussed earlier about...

Finance Bill 2021: Report Stage (Resumed) and Final Stage (2 Dec 2021)

Richard Boyd Barrett: There is an implication that we could not do it without them. When this country was effectively a Third World country, we were able to build public housing. It can and should be done.

Health (Amendment) (No. 3) Bill 2021: Committee and Remaining Stages (2 Dec 2021)

Richard Boyd Barrett: Mandatory quarantining cannot stop Omicron, yet that is the only reason mandatory quarantining is being considered. What is the point? What is the endgame of putting a large amount of resources and money into putting a draconian measure into place? Although we did not agree with the Minister's version of mandatory quarantining, we called for mandatory quarantining when the population was...

Health (Amendment) (No. 3) Bill 2021: Committee and Remaining Stages (2 Dec 2021)

Richard Boyd Barrett: Not all.

Health (Amendment) (No. 3) Bill 2021: Committee and Remaining Stages (2 Dec 2021)

Richard Boyd Barrett: Equality of treatment.

Health (Amendment) (No. 3) Bill 2021: Committee and Remaining Stages (2 Dec 2021)

Richard Boyd Barrett: It really directly follows on from that and goes back to the point I made earlier in asking what the point is here. My understanding is that the Minister does not envisage introducing mandatory hotel quarantine for UK arrivals, or at least, that is the signal we got. What we were talking about is states like South Africa, where there have been restrictions placed on travel. I think they...

Health (Amendment) (No. 3) Bill 2021: Committee and Remaining Stages (2 Dec 2021)

Richard Boyd Barrett: Vótáil.

Residential Tenancies (Amendment) (No. 2) Bill 2021 [Seanad]: Second Stage (3 Dec 2021)

Richard Boyd Barrett: I genuinely would like to be able to say I think this Bill will make any difference at all in improving the lot of those who are looking for private rented accommodation, living in such accommodation or facing eviction, or who have been evicted, through no fault of their own, from such accommodation. Tragically, there is really nothing at all in the Bill that will make the slightest bit of...

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Finance Bill 2021: Committee Stage (Resumed) (17 Nov 2021)

Richard Boyd Barrett: The Minister asked a legitimate question, namely, are we saying there should be absolutely no private sector involvement in housing? What I would say to that is the State cannot rely on funds, investment entities and property and real estate firms - whatever we want to call the vultures, as they are often described these days - to solve our problem, and we have a problem. It would be very...

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Finance Bill 2021: Committee Stage (Resumed) (17 Nov 2021)

Richard Boyd Barrett: Hold on a second-----

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Finance Bill 2021: Committee Stage (Resumed) (17 Nov 2021)

Richard Boyd Barrett: The Government made the decision to put the money into the banks.

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Finance Bill 2021: Committee Stage (Resumed) (17 Nov 2021)

Richard Boyd Barrett: What do you mean from where? From the pockets of the working people of this country.

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Finance Bill 2021: Committee Stage (Resumed) (17 Nov 2021)

Richard Boyd Barrett: I have not finished.

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Finance Bill 2021: Committee Stage (Resumed) (17 Nov 2021)

Richard Boyd Barrett: I was. Apologies. I know there is something buzzing behind me. I will genuinely try to be brief.

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Finance Bill 2021: Committee Stage (Resumed) (17 Nov 2021)

Richard Boyd Barrett: We have set out our positions and they are clearly divergent. However, it is necessary to answer the questions the Minister put, so that there is no suggestion that there is a lack of internal logic in the arguments that socialists are putting forward on this point. Our argument was and remains that the assets and the means by which one can produce the housing that is necessary, both...

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (7 Dec 2021)

Richard Boyd Barrett: Of course people should take up their vaccine boosters and of course there is no silver bullet for Covid-19, but I am shocked at the Taoiseach's complacency, inaction and, quite frankly, his denial of science when it comes to the issue of air quality and ventilation. That is what it is. We now know that Covid-19 is an airborne disease. It hangs around in the air. In particular, it hangs...

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (7 Dec 2021)

Richard Boyd Barrett: Of course the vaccine has made an enormous difference. We have actively encouraged people to take it up, as has everybody in this House. However, it is still not enough. It is clearly not enough because we are asking entertainment, music, taxi drivers and all sorts of people to take the hit once again as we head into Christmas and asking people to reduce their social contacts. Maybe that...