Results 24,481-24,500 of 27,080 for speaker:Richard Boyd Barrett

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: General Scheme of the Future Ireland Fund and Infrastructure, Climate and Nature Fund Bill 2023: Discussion (22 Nov 2023)

Richard Boyd Barrett: What sort of money are we getting from AIB?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: General Scheme of the Future Ireland Fund and Infrastructure, Climate and Nature Fund Bill 2023: Discussion (22 Nov 2023)

Richard Boyd Barrett: A couple of hundred million, but it would have been more presumably.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: General Scheme of the Future Ireland Fund and Infrastructure, Climate and Nature Fund Bill 2023: Discussion (22 Nov 2023)

Richard Boyd Barrett: Okay, €300 million. Perhaps Governments have made announcements on this or perhaps not, but is it projected that the other €6 billion in shares is going to be sold off?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: General Scheme of the Future Ireland Fund and Infrastructure, Climate and Nature Fund Bill 2023: Discussion (22 Nov 2023)

Richard Boyd Barrett: Just so that I understand, is it the case that once it is all sold off, there will be no more dividends coming in? This money is being transferred over to a fund. Which fund is it? Is it the infrastructure fund or both?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: General Scheme of the Future Ireland Fund and Infrastructure, Climate and Nature Fund Bill 2023: Discussion (22 Nov 2023)

Richard Boyd Barrett: Yes. Have we done a cost-benefit analysis on that? I am just curious. It is obviously Government policy but I wonder what the benefit is. Dividends are going to stop coming in. I am not tracking bank shares at the moment but the value of bank shares are going up because they are making super-profits.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: General Scheme of the Future Ireland Fund and Infrastructure, Climate and Nature Fund Bill 2023: Discussion (22 Nov 2023)

Richard Boyd Barrett: In the meantime, is it the case that before we sell off those shares, they are going to go into one of these new funds?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: General Scheme of the Future Ireland Fund and Infrastructure, Climate and Nature Fund Bill 2023: Discussion (22 Nov 2023)

Richard Boyd Barrett: For what it is worth, it seems to be folly for us to be selling the banks off and losing the dividends at a time when they are making us a lot of money. It would be a prudent investment to run the banks given all the surplus money we have.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: General Scheme of the Future Ireland Fund and Infrastructure, Climate and Nature Fund Bill 2023: Discussion (22 Nov 2023)

Richard Boyd Barrett: But it is one-off and that is it.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: General Scheme of the Future Ireland Fund and Infrastructure, Climate and Nature Fund Bill 2023: Discussion (22 Nov 2023)

Richard Boyd Barrett: Overall, I think the one lesson we have learned is that the banks never lose. Everything was thrown at them to bail them out. They never lose and they are back making profits again. Anyway, it is obviously a difference in policy.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: General Scheme of the Future Ireland Fund and Infrastructure, Climate and Nature Fund Bill 2023: Discussion (22 Nov 2023)

Richard Boyd Barrett: I will ask the next question on Palestine very quickly because I have just two minutes. Do we have information on where companies are operating in the occupied territories? Do the witnesses have details that can be shared about investments we have in Israel full stop, not just companies that might be operating in the occupied territories but that are based in or operating in Israel? Some...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: General Scheme of the Future Ireland Fund and Infrastructure, Climate and Nature Fund Bill 2023: Discussion (22 Nov 2023)

Richard Boyd Barrett: Does the NTMA break it down into jurisdictions?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: General Scheme of the Future Ireland Fund and Infrastructure, Climate and Nature Fund Bill 2023: Discussion (22 Nov 2023)

Richard Boyd Barrett: A geographical analysis is available. Can I get that on the ISIF website?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: General Scheme of the Future Ireland Fund and Infrastructure, Climate and Nature Fund Bill 2023: Discussion (22 Nov 2023)

Richard Boyd Barrett: That is great. This is the very last question I want to ask. If we are not meeting our climate targets, can the money being used to meet our targets – the money that can be spent - be used to buy carbon credits?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: General Scheme of the Future Ireland Fund and Infrastructure, Climate and Nature Fund Bill 2023: Discussion (22 Nov 2023)

Richard Boyd Barrett: Therefore, it cannot be used for carbon credits.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: General Scheme of the Future Ireland Fund and Infrastructure, Climate and Nature Fund Bill 2023: Discussion (22 Nov 2023)

Richard Boyd Barrett: It would be useful to get a categoric response on that. Perhaps it is an issue that we could get further clarity on.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: General Scheme of the Future Ireland Fund and Infrastructure, Climate and Nature Fund Bill 2023: Discussion (22 Nov 2023)

Richard Boyd Barrett: This is literally my last question. On that very point, the purchase of forests has become a big thing because they are supposedly carbon sinks, but there are also very serious reports that a lot of our forests are actually carbon emitters because of the type of forestry – monoculture of Sitka spruce - or it is planted on the wrong kind of soil so it is actually bad for water quality...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: General Scheme of the Future Ireland Fund and Infrastructure, Climate and Nature Fund Bill 2023: Discussion (22 Nov 2023)

Richard Boyd Barrett: I thank the witnesses and Deputy Conway-Walsh.