Results 21,801-21,820 of 27,080 for speaker:Richard Boyd Barrett

Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Public Service Performance Report 2021: Discussion (25 May 2022)

Richard Boyd Barrett: I thank the officials from the Department for a very good and interesting report. There is an awful lot of detail to look at but it is very helpful. It is a big reform to now have a document like this containing this much detail and telling us whether the allocation of money made in a budget has achieved what was set out as the rationale for that allocation. This is a lot more information...

Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Public Service Performance Report 2021: Discussion (25 May 2022)

Richard Boyd Barrett: It certainly is. There is a lot of campaigning going on around the area of access. I particularly note the great work of the disability campaigning group, Access for All. It would probably not be surprised at this, but it would be angry. I have been meeting that group for quite a few years. In a way, this is for the Department of Transport, Dublin Bus and Iarnród Éireann. This...

Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Public Service Performance Report 2021: Discussion (25 May 2022)

Richard Boyd Barrett: There will be a massive improvement. We eagerly await that. On higher education, in the equality section of the report, there are metrics covering students with disabilities, Travellers and quite a number covering women in particular positions and so on, which are important metrics in terms of equality. I suggest one of the biggest issues in higher education in terms of equality is the...

Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Public Service Performance Report 2021: Discussion (25 May 2022)

Richard Boyd Barrett: I accept it is a work in progress but it would be important to include that area as it is a critical one in terms of equality because there is a gross inequality in that, as I think Mr. Kinnane will be aware and it has been widely discussed. Another aspect I would note in passing, which is more a matter for the committee to follow up on, is the number of lower-income households who have...

Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Public Service Performance Report 2021: Discussion (25 May 2022)

Richard Boyd Barrett: It is key for them to identify changes or failures to meet targets. That is all I have to say. I thank the witnesses.

Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Public Service Performance Report 2021: Discussion (25 May 2022)

Richard Boyd Barrett: I reiterate that point that it is a great piece of work. One of the things we are looking at in our committee is tax expenditure and all of this is direct expenditure, is it not? When you give the figures for expenditure under each departmental heading, it is the direct allocations and presumably does not take account of the expenditures. Do the witnesses think it would be plausible - it...

Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Public Service Performance Report 2021: Discussion (25 May 2022)

Richard Boyd Barrett: I have a very brief supplementary question. I understand the demarcation lines but there is a certain sort of lack of "joined-up-ness" here. I will give an example from agriculture where we allocate a certain amount of direct funding to a particular programme while simultaneously there are tax expenditures that are trying to achieve certain things in agriculture but they are not looked at...

Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Public Service Performance Report 2021: Discussion (25 May 2022)

Richard Boyd Barrett: Yes.

Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Fiscal Assessment Report: Irish Fiscal Advisory Council (1 Jun 2022)

Richard Boyd Barrett: I thank the representatives of IFAC for their report and contributions. The impact of the inflation crisis has been uneven. Would our guests go even further and say there are winners and losers in this situation? It is not just that the impact is uneven. Would it be fair comment that some people are being hammered while others are doing very well? I would be interested to hear our...

Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Fiscal Assessment Report: Irish Fiscal Advisory Council (1 Jun 2022)

Richard Boyd Barrett: I will pull up Mr. Barnes slightly in that regard. I do not want to have a row with him but that is not the case when some people have surplus wealth to invest in the shares of BP or Shell.

Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Fiscal Assessment Report: Irish Fiscal Advisory Council (1 Jun 2022)

Richard Boyd Barrett: These are legitimate considerations.

Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Fiscal Assessment Report: Irish Fiscal Advisory Council (1 Jun 2022)

Richard Boyd Barrett: We have expanded the amount of renewable energy being produced. We are still dependent on imports and, therefore, vulnerable to price shocks resulting from international factors, but we use a great deal more domestically produced wind energy than we used to. Why has it made not a blind bit of difference to the price of energy?

Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Fiscal Assessment Report: Irish Fiscal Advisory Council (1 Jun 2022)

Richard Boyd Barrett: Regardless of how much we have expanded our domestic renewable energy production, there is no sign it has made any difference. One would have expected it to have had some impact, but it has had none at all.

Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Fiscal Assessment Report: Irish Fiscal Advisory Council (1 Jun 2022)

Richard Boyd Barrett: It is interesting that this is the case. The mantra is we will solve the current problem. Actually, the Taoiseach is saying we are entering an era of high energy prices and that the inflation we are seeing currently will be around for quite a while. Simultaneously, people are saying that, if we wean ourselves off fossil fuels and dramatically expand domestic renewable energy production, we...

Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Fiscal Assessment Report: Irish Fiscal Advisory Council (1 Jun 2022)

Richard Boyd Barrett: I was shorter than Deputy Doherty.

Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Fiscal Assessment Report: Irish Fiscal Advisory Council (1 Jun 2022)

Richard Boyd Barrett: Watch those taxes increase.

Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Fiscal Assessment Report: Irish Fiscal Advisory Council (1 Jun 2022)

Richard Boyd Barrett: I wish to pick Mr. Barnes up on the point about the large corporate tax revenues that are coming in and whether the best place to put them is in the rainy day fund or to pay down debt. I question that. I would have thought the lesson in the current situation is we need to invest rapidly in areas which are making us more vulnerable to this inflationary crisis - to insulate ourselves against...

Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Fiscal Assessment Report: Irish Fiscal Advisory Council (1 Jun 2022)

Richard Boyd Barrett: I thank Mr. Barnes.

Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Fiscal Assessment Report: Irish Fiscal Advisory Council (1 Jun 2022)

Richard Boyd Barrett: You will have to come down to join the party Bernard.

An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business (14 Jun 2022)

Richard Boyd Barrett: On the schedule, there is a proposal to approve Ireland's further participation in the PESCO military project without debate. Some of us believe that PESCO is putting in place the basis for a European army and that the Government is waging a very sustained attack on our neutrality, most recently expressed by the Taoiseach claiming we do not need a referendum to join NATO. There is, of...