Results 21,741-21,760 of 27,080 for speaker:Richard Boyd Barrett

Written Answers — Department of Health: Covid-19 Pandemic (18 May 2022)

Richard Boyd Barrett: 197. To ask the Minister for Health when all frontline workers who worked during the pandemic in certain healthcare settings (details supplied) will receive their pandemic bonus payment; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [25068/22]

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Education Costs (19 May 2022)

Richard Boyd Barrett: 104. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the measures that he intends to introduce to address student poverty and the shortage of affordable student accommodation; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [25333/22]

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Education Costs (19 May 2022)

Richard Boyd Barrett: The biggest contributor to student poverty is the extortionate cost of accommodation, whether it is private student accommodation built by investors or on-campus accommodation. We are talking well in excess of €1,000 per month in UCD or an even higher amount for some of the newer accommodation. Given that the Minister is giving €144,000 to developers per apartment, is there...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Education Costs (19 May 2022)

Richard Boyd Barrett: The key point is that education is a right, not a privilege. I will go further and say it is now a societal imperative. In other words, every doctor, psychologist, apprentice, arts worker, scientist and engineer we get qualified is making our society better. We have a shortage of all of those people, and many others I am not mentioning, right across the board. It is the State's...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Education Costs (19 May 2022)

Richard Boyd Barrett: Yes, but some of that purpose-built accommodation is completely unaffordable-----

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Education Costs (19 May 2022)

Richard Boyd Barrett: -----and we have to do something about that. On the fees front, I will make a point about a graduate entry medicine course that I heard discussed earlier. It is one thing for the Bank of Ireland to remove the loan, but people who we need to qualify as doctors should not have to take out a loan in the amount of €15,000 per year at all. We desperately need the doctors in our health...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Further and Higher Education (19 May 2022)

Richard Boyd Barrett: 106. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills if measures will be taken as part of budget 2023 to ensure that all financial barriers for those wishing to undertake further education or apprenticeship courses are removed; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [25334/22]

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Further and Higher Education (19 May 2022)

Richard Boyd Barrett: I do not know what school they are from but I was going to refer to the young people in the Visitors Gallery as well. I am not sure what year they are in but when they finish school, many of them will be looking to go to higher or further education or do apprenticeships. That would be good for them and also for our society because we need people in construction, medicine, the health...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Further and Higher Education (19 May 2022)

Richard Boyd Barrett: The Minister knows our position. We think we should get rid of all fees and all financial barriers. Now is the time for bold moves. We are facing chronic shortages in a number of areas such as construction, education, medicine and almost every area one can imagine. I want to ask about one particular group, though. There is a chronic shortage of psychologists and the result is real...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Further and Higher Education (19 May 2022)

Richard Boyd Barrett: The question is really getting at barriers. By the way, I think we should get rid of all apprenticeship fees for college, for the bit apprentices have to do in college. There is a campaign on that. I was asked by someone doing educational psychology to raise this so I am taking the opportunity.

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Further and Higher Education (19 May 2022)

Richard Boyd Barrett: A Vision for Change recommended that we have 190 psychologists in the child and adolescent mental health services, CAMHS. Currently we have 90, less than half of what was recommended more than a decade ago. There is real suffering for very vulnerable children as a result. Then we have people like Áine who wrote to me, and I have received multiple representations, who wants to do...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Further and Higher Education (19 May 2022)

Richard Boyd Barrett: 114. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills if he will abolish all fees for further and higher education and for apprenticeships; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [25332/22]

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Third Level Fees (19 May 2022)

Richard Boyd Barrett: 137. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills if he will remove the fees for all post-graduate psychology courses and ensure that funding and supports are provided in order that more students are encouraged into this discipline given the chronic shortage of psychologists; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [25331/22]

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Further and Higher Education (19 May 2022)

Richard Boyd Barrett: 178. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills if he will ensure in Budget 2023 that there are enhanced mental health services across all further and higher education and apprenticeship courses; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [25335/22]

An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business (24 May 2022)

Richard Boyd Barrett: That will be-----

An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business (24 May 2022)

Richard Boyd Barrett: Will the Government consider having some discussion on what it has been talking about doing in regard to a vacant property tax, of which we are very much in favour? There has been some discussion on this in the Oireachtas committee, which I understand will publish a report today on the whole issue. It is a matter of extreme urgency that we address the issue of vacant and derelict...

An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business (24 May 2022)

Richard Boyd Barrett: The Minister for Transport, Deputy Eamon Ryan, is not here but he should know that 5,300 taxi vehicle licences will expire next year because of the vehicle age limit. That represents a huge proportion of our taxi fleet. Let us remember that taxi drivers were hammered for two years. They essentially had no income for two years, so they are asking for a further vehicle life extension to...

Journalists in Conflicts across the World: Statements (24 May 2022)

Richard Boyd Barrett: On 14 March, Pierre Zakrzewski, an Irish-Ukrainian journalist, was murdered by Putin's murderous forces in his savage war on Ukraine. In the last week or so, we have seen Shireen Abu Akleh, the Palestinian journalist who spoke out fearlessly for 25 years to try to get across the truth of what is being done to the Palestinian people by the apartheid state of Israel, be murdered in a...

Short-term Lettings Enforcement Bill 2022: Second Stage [Private Members] (24 May 2022)

Richard Boyd Barrett: I thank Deputy Ó Broin for bringing forward this Bill, which we support. When in Dublin there are 2,700 Airbnb short-term lets being advertised but only slightly over 400 long-term lets, we know the Government's policy is failing yet again. Despite some efforts being made to limit or regulate this area, they just have not worked. Those who are pursuing profit from property are simply...

Saincheisteanna Tráthúla - Topical Issue Debate: Income Inequality (25 May 2022)

Richard Boyd Barrett: The rich get richer and the poor get poorer. That is a fact that is revealed yet again, as it is year after year, in the Oxfam report. It is not just a left-wing slogan; it is a fact. While the cost of living is crucifying and impoverishing tens of millions of people across the world, the world's billionaires and multimillionaires are getting richer by the day. The two things are directly...