Results 22,021-22,040 of 27,080 for speaker:Richard Boyd Barrett

Planning and Development (Amendment) (No. 2) Bill 2022 [Seanad]: Instruction to Committee (13 Jul 2022)

Richard Boyd Barrett: The Government is trying to make fools of people as it does every year at this time as we head towards the summer recess. It barrels through a deluge of legislation, and guillotines it to get through and smuggles in matters that, if they were scrutinised properly, could be of serious import and concern to people. We will not have the chance, and the public will have no chance whatsoever, to...

Rent Reduction Bill 2022: Second Stage [Private Members] (13 Jul 2022)

Richard Boyd Barrett: I move: "That the Bill be now read a Second Time." I am sharing time with Deputy Paul Murphy. The Title of the Bill should make clear what we are trying to achieve here. For the vast majority of people who are impacted by the current housing crisis, the need for a Bill that will reduce the extortionate, frankly obscene and completely unaffordable rent levels is more than patently...

Rent Reduction Bill 2022: Second Stage [Private Members] (13 Jul 2022)

Richard Boyd Barrett: Not shouting; projecting.

Rent Reduction Bill 2022: Second Stage [Private Members] (13 Jul 2022)

Richard Boyd Barrett: We have an absolutely dire rental and housing crisis. For a Bill that we table to try to address these extortionate rents we get sent the Minister of State with responsibility for heritage, electoral reform, local government and planning. The Minister with responsibility for housing does not even bother to come in. I find that really sickening. Yet again, I do not get an answer, although...

Rent Reduction Bill 2022: Second Stage [Private Members] (13 Jul 2022)

Richard Boyd Barrett: We are not. I have one minute and 30 seconds. The Government says it is not possible to anything about all of this and yet, Berlin did it. Berlin brought in rent-cap legislation in 2020 to do precisely what we are looking to do, which is not to allow rents go above levels that are affordable. It was brought in throughout Germany in 2020. In Paris, it was brought it in 2018. If there...

Ceisteanna ar Pholasaí nó ar Reachtaíocht - Questions on Policy or Legislation (13 Jul 2022)

Richard Boyd Barrett: The St. Margaret's service in Blackrock, which caters for people with intellectual disabilities - people with very complex needs - and their families, has made an urgent request for the publication of the action plan for the disability capacity review. The review was published in July 2021. The Department of Health said the action plan would be completed by December 2021 and there is no...

Ceisteanna ar Pholasaí nó ar Reachtaíocht - Questions on Policy or Legislation (13 Jul 2022)

Richard Boyd Barrett: The action plan was due in December.

Ceisteanna - Questions: Taoiseach's Meetings and Engagements (13 Jul 2022)

Richard Boyd Barrett: 7. To ask the Taoiseach if he will report on his meeting with the United States congressional delegation. [36006/22]

Ceisteanna - Questions: Taoiseach's Meetings and Engagements (13 Jul 2022)

Richard Boyd Barrett: I would have suspected what Deputy Murphy has outlined in any case, but it confirms something for me. One thing the US has done is try to secure access for US Palestinian citizens to the West Bank and Gaza, and vice versa, something that is made extremely difficult by the state of Israel. The Israelis want to be part of the US visa waivers scheme. In essence, there is a bit of a quid pro...

Ceisteanna - Questions: Taoiseach's Meetings and Engagements (13 Jul 2022)

Richard Boyd Barrett: It is not a fact.

Ceisteanna - Questions: Taoiseach's Meetings and Engagements (13 Jul 2022)

Richard Boyd Barrett: Did he organise the coups on his own?

Ceisteanna - Questions: Taoiseach's Meetings and Engagements (13 Jul 2022)

Richard Boyd Barrett: Quite a few, I would say.

Ceisteanna - Questions: Taoiseach's Meetings and Engagements (13 Jul 2022)

Richard Boyd Barrett: Will the Taoiseach respond on the visas issue?

Ceisteanna - Questions: Taoiseach's Meetings and Engagements (13 Jul 2022)

Richard Boyd Barrett: May we have a 30-second reply on the visa issue?

Ceisteanna - Questions: Taoiseach's Meetings and Engagements (13 Jul 2022)

Richard Boyd Barrett: 12. To ask the Taoiseach if he will report on his meeting with the Dutch Prime Minister. [36007/22]

Ceisteanna - Questions: Taoiseach's Meetings and Engagements (13 Jul 2022)

Richard Boyd Barrett: The Dutch have rent controls that are not dissimilar to the ones we put forward, which the Taoiseach’s Government rejected. It was claimed that our proposals were "illiterate" and "unworkable". Perhaps the Taoiseach should have asked Mark Rutte about how the rent controls work in the Netherlands. That country has a points system for the quality and size of a property. The majority...

Ceisteanna - Questions: Taoiseach's Meetings and Engagements (13 Jul 2022)

Richard Boyd Barrett: What?

Ceisteanna - Questions: Taoiseach's Meetings and Engagements (13 Jul 2022)

Richard Boyd Barrett: Surely the Taoiseach does not believe they are working.

Ceisteanna - Questions: Taoiseach's Meetings and Engagements (13 Jul 2022)

Richard Boyd Barrett: It is much worse here though.

Ceisteanna - Questions: Taoiseach's Meetings and Engagements (13 Jul 2022)

Richard Boyd Barrett: They are in a better situation.